Another's Arms
by QuanMarteze
Summary: After Bonnie returns from 1994, she is thrown back into the everyday supernatural drama of her life. But as her relationship with Damon grows, and she learns of her connection to Kai, how will things change?
1. Blank Space

The clock continued to move at its slow yet constant pace, though Bonnie glared at it. She was becoming restless and tired. Her hand would run through her soft hair, and give a little shake, or she'd tap her pen against the edge of her small desk. Anything that would speed up this agony. She sighed as her bottom lip moved a little to the side.

12:05. Ten minutes left of sociological torture. She regrets registering for these classes; taking a gander into something practical or realistic. It's not what she wanted to do, but felt it was something she needed to do.

She pulls on her earlobe, feeling a cold finger on her exposed shoulder. She turns around, startled.

"What?" Bonnie's voice was sharp, as if she had had enough. Enough of this class and this space that feels like it's enclosing on her. She turns her gaze to the windows behind the students. Past the guy who picked today to bother her.

"Jeez, I was just wondering if you had the notes from last lecture…" The guy said. Bonnie quickly threw a smile at him then shook her head.

"No. I just got back…" Bonnie turns back around, facing the professor. He's tying up the lecture. There is five minutes left. Bonnie feels relief, though the guy behind her continues to talk in a not surprisingly arrogant voice.

"Back from where?" The guy asked. Bonnie shifted her head, then she turned around and met his eyes, hers thinning out.

"Being dead," Bonnie swallowed. The guy's mouth itched a smirk, but it stopped. He realized she was serious. This is her first day back, and she doesn't really know how to process it. She removes her eyes from his, peering down at his beat up sneakers.

The students around her start packing up their things and heading for the door. 12:15. Class is finally over. It felt like a life time to her.

She puts her notebook into her bag and stands up, looking at the professor.

She takes her time down the steps. And as other busy students pass her by, she couldn't help but feel crowded. Everything around her felt so crowded.

She waited behind a student to talk to the professor. When they walked away, she walked up to the desk giving a smile.

"Hi, you probably don't remember me? I was wondering if there was a way I could get caught up before exams…" Bonnie asked. The professor was busy in his own manila folders, packing up himself to head to his next class.

"I mentioned the extra credit deadline last lecture," The professor said, putting his shoulder bag on.

"Like, I haven't been here the entire semester… I registered last year, but…" Bonnie bit her lips. She wanted to tell the truth so bad. "…I was on vacation."

The professor slows his movements, finally looking at Bonnie. He folds his arms. "How was the vacation?"

Bonnie looks down, folding her arms also, searching for something to say. The professor continued to pack up, and Bonnie looks behind her. There were no students waiting, and for some reason, that made her much better. She pursed her lips into a grin, thinking of the 'vacation'. The beginning moments, anyway.

"Well," Bonnie blinks several times, looking up at the ceiling. "It was really, really amazing and unpredictable."

"Who'd you go with?" The professor asked.

"A friend," Bonnie nodded. "He was annoying at first, and this was experienced on levels we had never dealt with before. But, after awhile, it was just…" Bonnie shakes her head, staring at the whiteboard behind the professor. She begins to smile. "It was peaceful."

Her mouth remains agape as the words leave her mouth.

"But, then, something tragic happened and… it feels like I never went," Bonnie shrugged. The professor did also.

"Guess that's life. Now, I can maybe help you. Just come to my office hours listed on the syllabus…" The professor told her.

Bonnie's eyes jump to the left, then back to him. "Yeah… I didn't get the syllabus either," Bonnie chuckles a bit, to hide her embarrassment. She looks behind her again and noticed the impatient faces on the students who just walked up.

"Here," The professor hands her the syllabus and she looks at it.

"Social psychology," Bonnie said. The professor's lips tighten as he nods his head.

"See ya tomorrow," Bonnie walks to the door after the professor tells her this. She reads over it as she walks into the bustling hallway.

"Professor Maximillian," She smirks, running into someone. "Oh!" Bonnie looks up to see Elena. "Elena."

Elena smiles and hugs Bonnie. "Hi Bonnie! How are you?"

"I'm good. I mean, it's been hard trying to get back into the swing of things but, I'm good," Bonnie said. She smiles, turning away and walking forward.

"Hey!" Elena said, catching up to her. "Where you going?" Elena chuckles. Bonnie opens her mouth, looking at Elena, but she says nothing. She only turns back forward and continues walking.

"I'm going back to the dorm. To sleep." Bonnie tells her. Elena rolls her eyes, skipping alongside of her.

They walk through the doors to the stairwell, walking in between other groups of students talking, and Bonnie realized something. Her and Elena haven't said much to each other since she was resurrected. This was the most they had talked.

"I'm sorry about you and Jeremy," Elena said out of nowhere and throwing Bonnie into a shock as they walked out of the building. Her eyes widened.

"What did you expect, Elena?" Bonnie said in a patronizing voice. She didn't mean it. It just… came out that way.

"I just know you loved him a lot." Elena said, staring at Bonnie. "Are you okay?" Bonnie nods, quickly.

"Look, Elena, I got to go," Bonnie said, and before Elena could get a word out, Bonnie was across the street. Elena sighed, putting her hands on her hips.

Hours passed. Bonnie opens her eyes, curled up under her blankets. She picks her phone up off the nightstand to see what time it was. 4:56.

She sighs, mad at herself for having slept almost four hours. Sitting up, she looks around the dorm. A tear begins to form on the underside of her eyelid and she blinks it out.

She smacks her teeth as it creates a steak down her face. "Why am I crying?" She said, wiping her left eye with one of her hands. She takes a deep breath and removes the covers, getting out of bed. She walks across the room when a knock comes at the door.

Startled, she says: "One second!" Bonnie was only in a wife beater stretching barely past her panties.

"It's Caroline," Caroline said from the other side of the door.

"Oh," Bonnie said while speedily moving towards the door. She opens the door, a big smile stretched across her face.

"Miss Bonnie!" Caroline exclaims, rushing in to give her a bear hug. They rock in each other's grasp, letting go soon after.

"Caroline!" Bonnie said, watching Caroline move past her.

"What are you doing?" Caroline said, walking to the center of the room, then spinning back around to Bonnie. "We are going out." Caroline tilts her head to Bonnie, matter-of-factly. Bonnie shakes her head.

"No…"

"Yes!" Caroline cuts her off. "Just us though, Elena didn't want to come… something about giving you some space?"

"Oh. Yeah, that." Bonnie sucks in her cheeks, preparing to come up with somewhat of answer as to why she and Elena weren't exactly getting along. Caroline had that face, and those eyebrows, that only meant she was going to find out.

"What is going on between you two? I mean, you JUST got back shouldn't we all be out celebrating the return of Bonnie Bennett?" Caroline asked.

"Something's off about her. And usually, I'd want to find out. But… I can't bring myself to care."

Caroline's expression shifted to mellow territory, as if she'd just found out life-changing news. She stared at the floor.

"Um." She clears her throat. "Well, um, I guess you don't know." Bonnie didn't look at Caroline. She meant it when she said that she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Elena erased her memories of Damon," Caroline said, walking up to Bonnie. Bonnie looked up, her breathing accelerating. Her eyes moved spontaneously as she thought about it.

"Oh my god," Bonnie let out. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. But it's what she wanted."

Bonnie folds her arms and walks back to her bed, sitting on it. She looks back at Caroline.

"I don't want to go into any details about it, Bonnie. If you want to know more just ask her." Caroline rolls her eyes. "Or Damon." She chuckles.

Bonnie joins her. "How's Damon?" Caroline's eyebrows raise once again.

"Well, he's Damon."

_Why does everybody say that?_ Bonnie thinks to herself.

"So, are we going?" Caroline asks. Bonnie nods and Caroline starts jumping with glee.

5:47. _Time is timeless_, Bonnie thought as Caroline returned with their drinks.

"I compelled the guy at the bar that we were old enough," Caroline said, sitting across from Bonnie.

"After everything we've been through? We are," Bonnie said. She picked up her glass and held it up. Caroline picked hers up and clicked against Bonnie's, and they drunk. Bonnie took a quick swig and brought the drink down, until she noticed Caroline still drinking, and she paused. Bonnie's brow furrowed at her.

"Since when, Care?" Bonnie asks. "Take it easy."

Caroline removes the empty glass from her lips and shakes her face, feeling jittery.

"Wooh! Another!" Caroline yells. Bonnie looks around at the many faces starting to look at them. She leans towards Caroline, urging her to quiet down. She just giggles and Bonnie can't help but do it too.

A couple of hours passed and they are sitting outside on a ledge. The drop isn't far though. Maybe if they were toddlers it'd be scary but, it's probably just to accentuate the scenery in the park. Bonnie's legs swing back and forth as she looks up at the red-orange sky.

"Sun is setting," Caroline mentioned. She leans back, her drink still lingering in her veins.

"Finally," Bonnie replies to her.

"I think we're getting old."

"What?" Bonnie's eyes thin, intrigued by what Caroline said. She almost laughs.

"I think we're getting old! Who drinks during the day unless they're old and withered?"

"Well, I know someone who does and… he's definitely not withered… old. But not withered."

Caroline cuts her eyes at Bonnie, with a slick smile stretched across her face. Bonnie doesn't look though. She can feel Caroline's eyes burning her cheek.

She does this often. Bonnie, not Caroline. Subtly and implicitly mention Damon. It helps her drag along these days.

Bonnie looks into the distance which is just a vast field leading to a forest. She tilts her head while staring at it. Home. A place she doesn't know if she wants to return to.

Moments later, Caroline pops up hearing footsteps from afar. Her mouth is open as she slowly looks around the area.

"Caroline, what's wrong?" Bonnie asked.

"I heard someone…" Caroline's eyes glare with intent. "It's a vampire, we need to go!"

Caroline sprints to Bonnie, grabbing her hand, and when she turned around she saw the last person she looked forward to seeing. Stefan.

Caroline bit her lip and stared at the ground. "What're you doing here, Stefan?"

"Uh, looking for Bonnie," Stefan told her.

"Well, you found her," Caroline said with a hint of contempt. She looked at Bonnie. "I'll be back, when he's gone."

Caroline zoomed away, leaving Stefan with his hand raised. He drops his arm and sighs, looking at Bonnie. Bonnie met his eyes then quickly looked away into the distance, finding a comforting discomfort.

"What do you need from me?" Bonnie said, folding her arms as the wind blew.

"Just for you to listen. Thank you… for saving my brother, Bonnie. I don't know what I would've done without him."

"I know. Is that all?" Bonnie stares at him, biting the inside of her jaw. Bonnie didn't have nothing against Stefan. It's just his presence is almost a connotation for her getting wrapped up in bad scenarios, and Bonnie is tired. She's just tired.

"Yeah," Stefan nods, "And tell Caroline that what she's doing is just… childish at best." Then he zoomed away.

"Asshole," Bonnie blurts out to herself. She turns around, and starts walking. Caroline did say she'll be back, and Bonnie believed her, but there was one last place that she wanted to visit before she went home.

Bonnie walked delicately pass the gravestones stuck in the cemetery. It was eerie being back. The same ill, detached feeling she had that day still resonates within her now. It's like the cemeteries grounds consumed her last human feelings, and now that she's back they've returned right with her.

She continues to walk through the cemetery until she reaches her gravestone, which is oddly next to Damon's. She would have liked it to be next to the rest of the Bennett witches. A dead flower is resting on the place where her body would have been. She bends down and picks it up, putting it towards her nose to smell it. A white pedal falls from the stem and onto her death bed.

She hears a sniffle from afar and her eyes analyze the cemetery. Putting the flower back on top of her grave, she turns around to trace the noise. She marches through the cemetery, passing through a black, old gate.

A man appears to the left of her. She tenses up, balling her fist, and turning. Taking a deep breath, she smiles.

"Matt," Bonnie lifts her arms up in relief, letting them fall down to her sides. She walks up and hugs him, feeling his intensity. He had already been crying, and he buried Bonnie's head into his shoulders. And she let him, because if anybody needs a hug besides her, it's Matt Donovan.

"Hey," Matt said, stuttering. He couldn't control his tears and overwhelming emotion. "How are you?"

"No, Matt, how are YOU?" Bonnie asked him in a compassionate voice. If there is anything Bonnie isn't, it's not empathetic. She is the embodiment of it, and any one person can see that. Whether she hates you or loves you, she is willing to see your side of the pines. And now, she's found Matt at his most vulnerable and wants him to know she is here for him.

"I don't know, Bonnie, I just…" He licks his lips, trying to figure out how to convey this message to Bonnie. Though, he knows that she'll understand him either way. "I just hate them… the vampires!"

Bonnie's mouth opens a bit in surprise and she leans back subtly, staring curiously into his eyes.

"What'd they do?" Bonnie said softly.

Matt shrugs. "Everything. What don't they ruin, Bonnie? Mystic Falls. Friendships… Elena. Us. It's like I've become so desensitized to everything!" Matt steps back in fury from Bonnie and tries to contain his emotion. He puts his hands on his head, staring up at the sky. "AHHH!" Matt yells and kicks a gravestone, falling onto his back.

"Matt!" Bonnie runs over to him and crouches next to him. Her face draped with worry. "Matt, you'll be okay, alright?"

Matt grabs onto his foot because of its aching pain. "No!" He said through the pain. "I've become so desensitized, Bonnie! And it took not my sister, not my mother, but Tripp dying to make me realize this!"

"Realize what?"

"That vampires," Matt begins to say through trembling lips, "will be the death of me if I don't cleanse them from my life."

Bonnie knew Matt was sincere. And she agreed. She also agreed that there is a continuum. No vampire is JUST good or JUST bad. But complex, and it's their experiences that makes them who they are. Like Matt, he's a really good person, but has done things he will pay for. This could be his breaking point. His time to pay, and Bonnie can see that happening. It's definitely not something she would entirely enjoy.

"First, Matt we need to get this foot healed," Bonnie said jokingly, forcing Matt to laugh through his pain.

Matt is sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, exchanging a look with Bonnie. She is sitting on the window seal with her arms folded.

"Can you move it?" Bonnie asks. He tries to move it and his mouth stretches wide in pain.

"No," He said through exasperating breath. The doctor, Jo, walks in with a clipboard and x-rays of Matt's foot.

"So, what's the verdict?" Matt said when she walked in. Jo stared at Bonnie a bit, before speaking, and Bonnie looked away.

"Well, it seems you fractured your foot. How'd you do that anyway?" Jo asks him, glaring at him.

"I was a little mad and took my frustration out on a gravestone," Matt said while nodding his head. Jo chuckles in disbelief, turning her gaze to Bonnie.

"Is this true?" She asks Bonnie.

"Mhm."

Jo takes a deep breath, walking over to Matt to give him more details. Caroline walks in with three hot cocoas, sitting them on the bed. She picks one up for her then one for Bonnie.

Bonnie takes the hot cocoa and takes a sip. She notices Matt staring at Caroline, smugly.

Jo walks out of the room, leaving the three of them.

"How's your foot, Matt?" Caroline asks. He stares at the floor, his hands interlocked in between his legs. Bonnie looks over with dissatisfaction. "Well, good thing I was there to save you."

"Could you just leave?" Matt said to her bluntly.

"Matt!" Bonnie snaps at him.

"No, it's okay!" Caroline said. "I'll just leave." Caroline grabs her coat from off the bed and leaves the hospital room.

"I really don't know what to do, Bon," Matt said through the silence.

"Matt, believe what you will just… don't forget who your friends are." Matt swallowed, wanting to latch onto that advice. "You were at my funeral, right? Damon and I's?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, I was there."

"Do you know if our bodies were there, or?"

"They were. After the other side imploded, your bodies were… just lying there. Next to each other, hands interlocked and all."

Bonnie nods, remembering that moment, thinking it was her last.

Bonnie arrives back in her dorm, surprised that nobody was there. She takes off her leather jacket and pulls down her black lace dress, jumping into her bed to curl under the covers. She then kicks off her boots, setting the alarm clock on her phone.

9:58. Her phone beeps and she gets a notification. A voicemail. She clicks on it to call it.

"231 unread voice messages. Message one—"Bonnie hangs up.

_ 231? Who would leave me 231 messages?_ She thought.

Bonnie opened her book in class to follow along with the lecture. She bit her lips, trying hard to understand the material. She just couldn't get it. Or maybe she just wasn't motivated enough to care to get it. She sighs and sits back into her seat. She feels a tap on her shoulder and turns around.

"Do you have any notes now?" The guy asked.

"No," Bonnie replied. She turned back around, a little annoyed. She focused her gaze on Professor Max, seeing a figure move outside the class in her peripheral. She looked at the door, seeing nothing.

She didn't pay any attention to it, just itched her eyebrow and focused on Max. Then, it happened again. And she looked, again. There was nothing.

Bonnie jumped at the sound of a girl screaming. She was calling for help and screaming helplessly and in distress. Bonnie didn't budge. She tried to ignore it. That's when the girl's screams begin to pierce her ears and Bonnie covered them as quick as she could.

She heaved through her mouth, looking at the other students who weren't reacting to Bonnie nor the girl's screams. She closed her eyes tight.

She opened them, realizing it was a dream. She turns over to see Elena standing over her bed. Bonnie immediately sat up.

"Hey," Bonnie said.

"Hey," Elena replied, looking to the floor. "Don't hate me, but someone's here to see you…"

Bonnie furrowed her brows as Elena turned her to the door. In walked Kai, smiling like a trickster.

"Elena, why did you bring him here?" Bonnie said, upset.

"Oh, don't blame her, Bonnie. I made her," Kai said, smirking. He looks at Elena. "Leave us, please." Elena rolls her eyes and walks out of the dorm. Bonnie brings her knees up to her chest, anxious. She wraps her arms around her legs, watching Kai walk to her bed.

"Am I allowed to sit?" Kai asks her.

"You're already here aren't you? Make yourself at home."

"Look. Thank you. Okay? Thank. You. For saving me," Kai said to her.

"Oh, please," Bonnie rolls her eyes.

"I'm serious," Kai said, his eyes widening.

"Bullshit."

"I'm serious," Kai's tone deepened, in a playful way, and he laughed. Bonnie didn't find it amusing though.

"Why haven't you left to go murder the Gemini Coven, the people that saved you, by the way."

"Trust me, I've tried leaving this vilifying place," Kai cuts his eyes to bookcase, then back to Bonnie, "But every time I try to leave, something's keeps pulling me back."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah," Kai cocks his head at her, glaring at her with his nostrils flaring. Bonnie turns away. She was so sick of the guy. Then, after a moment of thinking,she chuckles and glares back at him.

"That's why you're here," She shakes her head in amazement, "You think it's me." Kai doesn't answer her. He just continues to glare at her in hopes that she will admit it is her. "Tough, because it's not."

"Bullshit, witch!" Kai grabs onto Bonnie and tries to steal her power. She doesn't budge, just gives a satisfying smile.

"Dumb ass. I don't have my magic!" She rips his hand off of her arm.

He smooths his shirt down along with his shirt sleeves while saying "If you actually think I'm going to believe that, then you obviously—" He launches at her, pinning her up against the headboard with his hand on her neck. He leans into her, their noses grazing, and tilts his head slowly. "—you obviously do think I'm some kind of dumb ass!"

He puts even more pressure on her neck and Bonnie grunts.

"Elena!" Bonnie screams through her teeth. Elena charges in the room and grabs Kai. She pulls him off of Bonnie and throws him to the other side of the room. He crashes through a window.

Bonnie rubs over her neck, catching her breath. Elena looks at Bonnie, and Bonnie nods with gratitude. Elena gives a genial smile and makes her way to the door, giving one last look at Bonnie.

Bonnie knocks on Professor Max's office door.

"Just a minute!" Max called out. Bonnie leaned back on her left leg and looked to her left down the narrow hall, in all of its never ending nature. Max opened the door quickly, looking a bit stirred. "Hi, come in!"

Bonnie walks in, not at all surprised by the scattered papers and folders on his desk. He weaved around her in the small office to get behind his desk. He sits down and takes a deep breath. "Have a seat!"

Bonnie sits in one of the chairs. Max was clicking away on his computer with his chin rested on his hand.

"Now, what was it we were supposed to be talking about?" Max said, his eyes thinning.

"Well, about how I can catch up before exams," Bonnie reminds him.

"Oh, yeah! You were the one talking about the vacation. What's your name? I'm sorry students tell me stories all the time to get me to write them a recommendation."

"Bonnie."

"Look, Bonnie, honestly, there's nothing I can do," Max told her. She was upset at the news, but hid it under a poised manner. "You picked the wrong time to go on vacation."

"In my defense, I really didn't have a say. I was looking out for my friends."

"Well, pfft. You got some really shitty friends, don't you think?"

Bonnie stands up. "Okay, I better go."

"Wait, just drop your classes this semester and register for the same ones in the next. You seem like a smart girl who made a bad decision. "

Bonnie slowly began to shake her head. "Look, I appreciate… you know what, you didn't even try to do anything so," Bonnie tries to think of something to say or a way to end the conversation, but nothing comes to mind. She just leaves, closing the door behind her.

She stands in front of the door, feeling overwhelmed with tears. She tries to take a few deep breaths to calm her breathing. Her eyes close to help calm herself down.

"It's okay," She said to herself.

Bonnie received a text from Elena shortly after leaving Professor Max's office. She's throwing a small get together for her friends. Bonnie thought about it, and this could be the thing to bring her relationship with Elena back on good terms. Not the questionable terms it's been on since she came back.

So, Bonnie puts on a little black dress and a red beanie. She throws her leather jacket on and heads out of her dorm, and to some venue Liam helped Elena get.

Bonnie walked into the building. The place was packed. Bonnie was convinced it would only be her, Elena, Caroline, and a few others. Something like a girl's night out plus Liam. This is nothing like she imagined. It was a party.

Bonnie weaved through the crowds of people chatting and dancing until she heard her name. It was Elena. She followed her voice, but someone snatched her beanie off of her head.

"Hey!" She looked in the person's direction and he looked back at her. It was some stranger, and Bonnie started to go after him to get her beanie back.

Jeremy stepped in her way.

"Jeremy, now is not the time—" Bonnie tells him.

"Please, just let me talk. I'm sorry for the way I acted around you. It wasn't fair to you," Jeremy said. Bonnie was delighted to hear this. It made her feel a little bit better, and it oddly, gave her hope… until Jeremy's new girl showed up on his arm. Sarah.

"You must be the ex from dead," Sarah said to Bonnie.

Bonnie cut her eyes from Sarah to Jeremy, then walked away from them. She met up with Elena, Caroline, and Liam.

"Hey!" Bonnie said to them, and they all greeted her back. "Where's Matt?"

"He didn't respond to my text," Elena said.

"Any, of our texts," Caroline said, looking into her glass. Bonnie licked her lips in anticipation.

"I'm calling him," Bonnie said, walking away.

Bonnie walked outside, finally feeling some relief for her eardrums. She pulled her phone from her jacket pocket and dialed a number, putting the phone to her ear. His phone sent her straight to voicemail.

"Matt, seriously? I show up and you don't? Donovan, put whatever animosity you have against them for one night. Me, you, Elena, and Caroline will be together like old times. Nothing would make me feel any better."

"What about this?" A voice said behind her.

Bonnie turns around, seeing Damon holding her teddy bear Ms. Cuddles, who was wearing her red beanie.

"Damon?" Bonnie said, almost losing her breath and slowly bringing her phone to her side.

Damon smiles widely and genuinely, walking up to her. "I believe this belongs to you."

He couldn't stop smiling, not in her presence anyway. She was a bright star to him, something he'd searched for and thought he'd found before, but it never felt as tangible as it does now. They have a connection that can never be severed no matter what they do. As Bonnie looks down, grabbing Ms. Cuddles from him and peers up, seeing Damon's unruly smile attempt to hide his simplicity of his look, she feels that connection.

Damon clears his throat. "So," in a soft, swollen voice, Damon speaks, "You're not mad at me, are you?" Damon looks down, kicking gravel onto Bonnie's boots. She didn't notice though.

"Why would I be mad at you?" Bonnie asked, finding his eyes. He sees them and is pulled into her green orbs again.

"Because I assumed you were dead… and you really weren't."

Bonnie chuckled, yet she didn't smile. She looked to the road next to her, thinking about what he said. How should she feel? Angry, resentful, unforgiving? She could never.

"What're you thinking about?" Damon asked her. She turned back to face him.

"It's just weird because… I actually missed you." Bonnie looks at him, perplexed. It's as if this feeling of longing had just hit her at impulse, and she had to decide to tell him now or tell him never.

Damon's mouth opened at the comment, but he quickly closed his it and swallowed, looking back down at Ms. Cuddles.

"Well, thank Ms. Cuddles, because without her… I would have never known."

Before they could realize it, they were inches away from each other. Damon didn't budge. He liked the security Bonnie gave him, and for her, it felt different, like the first time seeing tadpoles in the evening pond— she was captivated and will never forget it. And, even if she wanted to, it would be impossible.

Damon took the red beanie off of Ms. Cuddles and put it on Bonnie's head. Bonnie chuckled while Damon remained in his seriousness.

"What're you doing?" Bonnie asked him. He flicked the puffy ball on top of her beanie. "Dork."

Bonnie steps away, hugging Ms. Cuddles close to her chest and turning around. Damon watched her, so happy to have his best friend back.

Bonnie turned back around and thought about what Caroline said yesterday. About Damon. How _he's just Damon._

_ No,_ Bonnie thought, _No, he's more than that. He's complex, a novelty…_

"…a rock in the goldmine, but a rock all the same," Bonnie said out loud. She covers her mouth.

"Yeah, I heard that," Damon said to her.

Bonnie clutched Ms. Cuddles again, staring at Damon with grace, and smiled.

"Good." Bonnie's smile turns to a frown when she sees a face peeking out the side of the building.

Peeking around the corner of the building is Kai, watching Bonnie and Damon. Damon turns around, feeling a presence around him.

"Who's there?" Damon yells. No answer. He looks back at Bonnie, confused. She drops her arms to the side, her mouth agape. Damon motions for her to follow, and they walk to the corner. Liam pops from the side of the building.

"Hey," Liam said. "It's you... and, Elena's friend, Bonnie."

Damon raises one eyebrow and looks at Bonnie. She's glaring at Liam, her eyes thinned and jaw tensed. She looks back at Damon.

"Okay… nice to meet you too," Liam walks between them and back into the party. Damon and Bonnie watch him as he does.

"Something isn't right," Damon said, his face in a scrunch like he'd just smelled something awful.

"Not at all, because that was Kai, that I'd seen, not Liam," Bonnie told Damon. He lifted his chin, shocked by that information. "Nope, I am not here for this shit again."

Bonnie rolls her eyes and folds her arms while Damon shuts his eyes tight and sighs.


	2. My Sweetest Friend

The air remains cold. Bonnie cuddled herself, standing against the building in the freezing air. Damon had told her to stay where she was, while he went inside to interrogate Liam. Bonnie put on a façade when he told her that, raising her eyebrows and giving him a tight lipped smile. The paleness of his face would never match that of his character. And Bonnie knew this as she felt compelled to think about his urge to protect the ones he loves. In this matter, it leans toward Elena. Bonnie wouldn't have minded a couple months ago, she'd always known his behavior towards Elena can be somewhat destructive, but now that she's grown to care for him it presents a different paradox for her.

Damon, with focused, transparent eyes, read Bonnie like a book. Her green eyes may offer a richness, something like a meadow, but he could see she wasn't very happy with what was going on. She may have shown him a believable smile, but Damon was all too keen on Bonnie's dismissiveness and her natural way of conveying to others things are okay. When to her, they clearly are not.

Not surprising at all to her, Damon hasn't lashed out in his usual way against Elena removing her memories. And word has it, HE broke up with HER. Whether there is finality in that conclusion, Bonnie doesn't think so. She has her doubts, and moreover doesn't believe she has a stake in what Damon and Elena will become in the future.

Bonnie has her own plans; suddenly thrown into the depths of her mind as she receives a phone call from Matt.

"Hey," Bonnie says in a delighted voice, pushing her hair behind her ears.

"Hello Bonnie," Matt replies, "Look, I'm sorry about not coming to the get together or whatever. I just…" Matt stops for a moment, figuring out what to say.

Bonnie hears a movement in the bushes next to her, and her head whips to the left.

"I-I can't be around them right now. Not with how I am feeling," Matt continues.

Bonnie ignores the sound. Probably an animal. "How are you feeling, Matt?" Bonnie asks him. She waits for him to answer, because she truly cares, but all she hears is the sound of his breaths. So, she continues: "Because the last time I talked to you, you seemed very hurt."

"Well, I did just bang up my foot."

"You know what I mean, Matt. I'm just—UHHH!" Bonnie clutches her stomach and bends over, dropping her phone on the ground. She stumbles back into the wall, holding her stomach tight. Looking down, and pausing between breaths to alleviate the pain, Bonnie removes her hands slowly to see her black dress soaking up. Blood.

"OH!" Bonnie drops Ms. Cuddles as the pain grew stronger. She fell to her knees trying to catch a steady breath. Whatever is happening to her, it's growing to unbearable levels and she could feel herself passing out at any time. It's as if she is practicing a spell, a powerful one, and she had no intention of letting up.

Though it feels the same, it's not. This is torture brought on by some outside force, and she lets up. She lets up.

"I awoke in a hospital bed. For the first time in my life. And it was so odd, because out of all the times I've been in physical danger… I've never been taken to the hospital." Bonnie taps her finger against the arm of the chair, shaking her head sternly.

She wasn't in this office too long ago. One day or so, when Professor Max bluntly told her it was too late for her. But she's back after receiving an email from him this morning. He apologized and was willing to talk to her about possible alternatives. Bonnie agreed to have the meeting, but she was so disillusioned from last night. And it has infected the rest of her life in a negative way.

She looks into the eyes of Professor Max, raising her chin. "I just… I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I feel like I should be telling someone… and I feel comfortable telling you, but I just feel like I should be telling this to someone else."

Professor Max placed his arms on his messy desk and interlocked his fingers, trying to construct an understanding look on his face. He didn't have an answer though. Bonnie readily knew this; that he is a lost cause. Especially concerning her future. She didn't withdraw from sharing this personal information with him though, but the thought of doing it made her feel as if it should be shared with someone else.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is… I miss being normal," Bonnie admits. She takes a deep breath and exhales, massaging her hands on her thighs. She looks at Professor Max's shaken eyes as they search the room absently.

"So, what do you propose we do— or what do you see as a solution to this…" Professor Max finally opened his mouth, to Bonnie's surprise. She really threw him off a bit, and it still is evident as he began to stutter. "Normal… missage, thingy. Wow," He itches his head, "I just totally made up a word."

Bonnie ponders his question a moment, then leans her head back as she thinks.

"I think I'm going to leave." She looks at Max, who isn't surprised at this remark. The corners of his mouth turned down in approval as he nods. Bonnie nods. "Yeah, I just think I need to start over."

Bonnie spent the rest of yesterday muddling herself over moving. She doesn't want to stay here, but she isn't trying to remove her friends from her life. She turns the page of her grimoire, running eyes down the worn pages, but thinking about what she should do. She bounces on her bed a bit, chuckling to herself.

"I wouldn't miss this," She says, a slight smile on her face. She closes her mouth, looking at Ms. Cuddles sitting in front of her. Composed of all of her Bennett magic, she decided to focus on retrieving that instead of fogging her mind about moving. As soon as she's finished with this, she'll make an impulse decision on whether to leave or not. It's been settled.

Bonnie itches her forehead, flipping the page of the grimoire with her other hand. A spell to return the magic enclosed in an object back to its rightful owner shouldn't be too difficult.

She inhales. "Okay…" She says, running her finger down a page. She takes another breath and starts chanting a spell, closing her eyes. Her hands were facing Ms. Cuddles.

Her magic transferred itself back into her, and she could feel its power as her body went through a series of jolts and convulses. Her mouth opens as she absorbs her magic and palpitates through breaths, passing out on her bed.

Bonnie opens her eyes. She checks her phone. Messages from Matt are in her notifications. She looks at the time. 1:30. She hears voices, unfamiliar ones coming from across the room. Sitting up in bed, she sees Elena talking to two repairmen as they analyzed the window she broke. Elena looks over at Bonnie, seeing she is awake and walks over to her.

"How are you feeling?" Elena asked, climbing onto the edge of the bed and resting on her knees.

"I'm better," Bonnie says, looking down at her stomach and lifting her shirt. Elena makes a nauseated face.

"Oh," Elena comments.

"Yeah. I got my magic back," Bonnie tells her, then shifts her gaze to the door and uses her magic to open it. The two repairmen jumped, erupting laughter in Elena and Bonnie.

Elena looks up at Bonnie. "How are we, Bonnie?"

Bonnie is caught off guard by this question. She didn't know where they stood. Their relationship ever since the Salvatore's entered has been stripped of its innocence. There entire relationship was built on innocence, like any other long-term friendship from childhood, but Bonnie didn't have the persistence to salvage it. Or, maybe it was Elena. They probably both were at fault.

Bonnie answers just before Elena was going to give up on it. "I'm leaving, Elena," The words left Bonnie's mouth as if she's been wanting to say it for years. Breathless, carefree, and without regret, but soaked in seriousness all the while.

"What?" Elena replies. Bonnie noticed her bottom lip tremble a bit and her face covers in anxiety.

"I can't stay here anymore," Bonnie doesn't move her gaze from Elena's. "I mean, look at this," She points down to her wound, "I'm here all two days and I still can't escape this torture. And God knows why it happened, but it did. And it was just the last straw for me."

"Any… one of these times could have been the last straw, why now?" Elena says, and Bonnie couldn't help but feel a sting from this remark. It hurt. She didn't know how to answer the question. In some ways, Elena is right. Bonnie has had so many chances to leave, so what is changing her mind now? Is it Matt's realization that is persuading her, or her own self-reflection about wanting to be normal again?

"I can't say, Elena. But I am leaving, and I'm not changing my mind." Bonnie looks over at the bookcase. Elena looks at her bedding, and nods quickly.

"Right." Elena is left speechless. The bridge is crumbling between Bonnie and Elena, and not one of them is willing to fix it. Elena would if Bonnie would. But Bonnie is in a different place, and Elena has no standing where she is.

The two sit enveloped in silence. Elena picks up Ms. Cuddles and puts her on her lap.

"Ms. Cuddles," Elena chuckles. Bonnie looks back at Elena, smiling. Elena doesn't look up, she only stares at Ms. Cuddles. Bonnie watches as her smile descends into an empty frown. The last time she saw that look was when Elena had her humanity switch off.

Elena sits Ms. Cuddles back onto the bed and gives a transparent smile, keeping her head down. She marches out of the room while Bonnie grabs Ms. Cuddles, hugging her tight.

She kind of wanted to say something, to apologize and put all of the troubles between her and Elena behind. She just can't see that happening practically, though. She stands up and walks across the large dorm room to close the door.

Later that day, as the moon begins its ascent, Bonnie sits on the window seal of the new window, looking outside. She busts into tears, covering her face and shaking uncontrollably. She inhales, then gasps. Looking out the window again, she sees Kai standing in the grass staring at her. Bonnie wipes her face and walks away from the window.

"What is that stalker doing here?" Bonnie says to herself. She hears a knock on the door and walks to get it. She opens the door and it's Damon, smiling. His smile fades into concern when he sees her.

"What's wrong?" Damon asks, his brows furrowed. Bonnie sighs, and Damon walks in, closing the door behind him. He faces Bonnie again, his blue eyes jumping up and down her body.

"Elena and I… I don't think we're friends anymore," Bonnie tells him, walking over to the window. Damon watches her and his mouth slowly opens when he hears her say that. He wonders if it was about him. His jaw clenches as he takes a step towards her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Bonnie sniffles, taking another look out the window. Kai is gone. "I'm okay." Damon stares at her with a content face and nods.

"How's your stomach?" Damon asks, walking closer to her.

Bonnie raises her chin, glaring at him. "You know about that?"

"I'm just keeping tabs on my favorite girl." Bonnie sighs, folding her arms and walking past him.

"What do you want?"

"So what? Since we're not in 1994, we can't still hang out?"

Bonnie stops walking, and turns around, pursing her lips at him. She takes a deep breath.

"Okay." As soon as Bonnie says that, Kai busts into the room.

"Ding-dong!" Kai yells, his arms in the air as he walks in. He drops his arms to the side when he sees Bonnie and smiles, cocking his head. "Bonnie," He clasps his hands together, "How are you?"

Kai cuts his eyes to Damon, who is fueling with anger at the sight of Kai. Damon zooms at Kai, pinning him on the ground. He pushes his forearm into his neck and Kai chuckles, then chokes up.

"Didn't I tell you to leave?" Damon aggressively says through his teeth. Kai replies in a snarky, sarcastic tone and Damon pushes his forearm even further into neck. Bonnie becomes alarmed when she heard a crack.

"Damon," Bonnie says walking over to him. She grabs him and pulls him off of Kai. He continues to stare at Kai in disgust, while Kai dusts himself.

"We could kill you right now," Damon mumbles, but just loud enough for Kai to hear.

"We could," Bonnie glares at Damon, then looks at Kai, "But we're not going to."

Kai stands up, perky, and walks towards Bonnie and Damon.

"I tried to leave," Kai tells them, his frustration rising. "I continue to try to leave, YET there is no success!" Kai storms away from them, his face tense and rife with hatred. He turns back around, pointing at Bonnie.

Damon and Bonnie exchange looks.

"What're you doing?" Bonnie asks Kai. Kai begins to laugh maniacally through his teeth. Damon starts to grim him with his eyes.

"I will RIP your finger off, what the hell?" Damon articulates. Kai keeps laughing as he walks out of the dorm. "He's up to something. I'm going to find out." Damon heads toward the door, but Bonnie grabs his arm to stop him.

"Wait, I'm coming with."

"You should. Maybe this time you won't get hurt."

Bonnie pierces him with her gaze right up until he opens the door for her as they leave. He argues with her about not being able to protect herself like he thought she could. He was just teasing, but it still ignited a fire within Bonnie. She explained to him that she is fully capable of taking care of herself, but not when something invisible is hurting her.

"So, you were attacked by a ghost?" Damon asks Bonnie, incredulously, while getting into his car. She smirks, shutting the car door. "Because we totally obliterated the other side, if you can't seem to remember that."

"I don't know what it was," Bonnie replies to him, "But I do know that it was something." She sasses him with a smile then turns to look out the windshield. They were trailing behind Kai, who's driving a pickup truck. Bonnie wonders where he could have gotten the truck. He most likely stole it from someone.

"Where do you think he's going?" Bonnie asks Damon.

"I don't know, Bon-Bon," Damon says with snark. He turns to look at her, his blue eyes like bottomless oceans. "That's what we're going to find out." He smiles at her just to annoy her.

"Pay attention to the road," Bonnie tells him, gesturing towards the windshield. He keeps on smiling at her, which is until she pushes his face away lightly. He chuckles and she shakes her head, poking her jaw with her tongue.

Damon turns in the Whitmore hospital parking lot and parks the car near the back, but close enough distance to get a good look at Kai and what he was up to. Bonnie watches as Damon tuned the radio. He stopped on a radio station composed completely of jazz. She leans on her hand, looking out her window.

Damon sees Kai stop his truck in front of the hospital doors and run inside. Damon opens his car door, urging Bonnie to follow.

As they make their way across the lot, Bonnie wonders why she is even here. She does want to know what Kai is up to, but she plans to move from this place so it honestly doesn't matter. Plus, she doesn't want to believe it but Damon will be devastated to find out she's leaving. Others will too, but it's such a sharp contradiction that Damon will be a little upset. She knows he wouldn't want her to go, but he wouldn't want to hold her back either.

She looks over at Damon just as he looked at her, and for a brief moment she wanted to stay. She wanted to be consistent as the night sky above them, trickling its eternity upon them, but she couldn't. She looks away, onto the sidewalk, into the grittiness of its surface and in reflection to her dazed heart, contemplating if her plans are truly the right way to go.

Kai stumbles into the hallway of the Whitmore medical center, falling into a wheelchair. He stands back up and rubs his hand over his stomach. He looks down the hall, his eyes darkened with resolve, and walks down the steady hallway.

"JO!" He calls out as he breathes through his nose. A nurse holding a clipboard steps out of a hospital room and tells Kai to quiet down. He kicks his foot angrily in her direction, almost tripping himself. "You shush!" He tells her.

Bonnie walks into the lobby, her mouth hanging open as she looks around for Kai. Damon approaches behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders with one of his eyebrows raised.

"I heard something," Damon says to her. Bonnie looks up at him, then down at his hand. "Follow me." Damon whisks away down the hall, and Bonnie follows behind him.

Kai turns down a corridor that lead to two double doors. He pushes them open with both hands, looking down both sides of the hall.

"JO!" He yells again. "Where IS she?" Kai says to himself in frustration. He stomps over to a wall and slams his hand against it. He steps away from the wall, shaking his arms out and bouncing on his toes. It didn't matter how calm he could get himself; the minute he sees Jo he'll burst with animosity. He knows she is keeping him here. Why? But it's either let him go or she'll die.

He looks down the hall, seeing an old man wheel himself out of his room. A nurse chases behind the old man to catch him and push him back into the room. Kai walks in their direction determined to find Jo, and turns left at the end of the hallway.

Damon and Bonnie walk around a corner and find Kai kicking down doors and calling for Jo. Damon pushes Bonnie back, and they peek from around the corner. Bonnie tries to suppress her laughter at Kai's anger. Damon shakes his head at Kai and pulls his head back from Kai's view.

"What the hell does he want with Jo?" Damon asks.

"Whatever it is, it's important." Bonnie pulls back also, leaning back against the wall.

Damon steps out in front of Bonnie and starts to pace. "We need a plan of action."

Bonnie rolls her eyes. "You don't have anything else better to do, do you?"

He puts his hands on his hips and leans his head towards her. "Bon-Bon, I know you're not too keen on wanting to protect yourself which is why I am here." He points to himself with both hands, stepping in front of her.

"I can handle myself, Damon."

"Can you? Because I could—"He reaches for her neck with his hand in a quick motion, but she stops him with the palm of her hand using her magic.

Two security guards jog by, not paying much attention to Bonnie and Damon. Bonnie lowers her palm and he steps back, clenching his jaws.

"You proved your point," Damon admits, reluctantly.

Bonnie walks up the stairs and turns down the hallway to her dorm. When she reaches her door, she sighs. She's tired and wants to just plop onto her bed and snuggle under the covers. After searching for her keys, she finds it and opens the door to her dorm to see Caroline pulling the covers over her bed. She stops and turns around when she hears the door open. Caroline smiles at Bonnie and she does it back. Caroline looks away, and the air in the room suddenly got hot and crowded. Elena must have told Caroline, even though Bonnie did want to do it herself.

Bonnie starts to walk over to her bed when Caroline says, "So, you're leaving?"

"Yeah, Care," Bonnie says. The words left her lips and she suddenly wanted to take them back. Caroline's face had been planted to the floor, and soon her eyes avert up to meet Bonnie's.

Bonnie remembers why she feels this regret. It starts with remembering when she first returned to Mystic Falls:

Back in 1994, a few minutes before she would come back, Kai was off on his own being mad at the 90s world. Bonnie found solace and peace as she opened the door to old house. She was just getting comfortable with this situation, and the smile barely stretched across her face indicated just that as she entered her old home. She walked into the quaint living room, seeing photos of her family when they were just that… a family. She picked up a picture frame of her, her dad, and her mom. A regular, traditional family photo that was poignant nonetheless.

Poignant for her because she wanted so bad to go back. It felt so bittersweet because in a way she was _back_. Just alone. And most affirming, forgotten.

Bonnie dropped to her knees, holding the frame in her hands and falling onto her back. She stared up at the ceiling with a willingness to lie there forever. She placed the frame on her chest and turned her head to the side. She gasped. Caroline was standing a few feet away, her eyes swelling with tears.

"Caroline!" Barely getting the words out of her mouth, Bonnie raced up and ran to Caroline, wrapping her arms around her. Caroline closed her eyes as more tears rushed down her face.

"Oh my god," Caroline said, wiping the tears from her eyes. She pursed her lips to try and stop herself from crying, but she couldn't. She could feel Bonnie's emotions and the undeniable fact that she was losing it. She was becoming a mere vessel here all alone by herself.

"How are you here?" Bonnie asks through sobs, still in Caroline's grasp.

"It doesn't matter. Just know your finally going home," Caroline says. Bonnie lets go of Caroline and stares at her in shaken amazement. She turns around and looks at her old living room, a look of disbelief covering her face.

"Are you really here?" Bonnie says, shaking her head in disbelief. She turns back around to face Caroline.

"Yes!" Caroline gasps. "People say that I'm the mold that holds us altogether but that's a lie. You are."

Bonnie will never forget that moment. She can't say how much truth is in that statement, but she can say that Caroline found her at her utmost breaking point. As Caroline walks pass her now, in the dorms, without a word, something changes. She leaves the dorm, and Bonnie cocks her head to the side as the door closes softly.

She gasps.

The next day, Bonnie steps out of the shower and wraps a towel around her. She looks into the foggy mirror and wipes off the fog. _Determination_, she thinks.

Today's the day. The day she'll leave behind a life that's dug her whole self into the dirt. This time she'll grow and bloom like the girl she knew she was supposed to be. She walks into the empty dorm fully clothed, tucking her phone into her back pants pocket. She just wants to feel different. She wants to forget this life ever happened. To cleanse herself.

Her phone rings.

"Hello?" Bonnie answers without seeing who it is.

"Hey Bonnie," Matt says, "I was wondering if you'd go with me to this thing the Fell family is holding."

Bonnie without hesitation agrees to do this one last thing before leaving. She owes it to Matt to tell him she's leaving anyway. She owes it to Damon to, and knows she does. Why is she neglecting to tell him? Every time she thinks about telling Damon her heart beats faster and the palms of her hands get sweaty, and suddenly, she can't bring herself to tell him.

"It doesn't feel any different," Bonnie mentions, squinting her eyes in the rays of the sun. Being back in Mystic Falls is a mystery. She feels a certain pull, or attraction, to it, yet she has the urge to remain as far as possible from the town.

"Well, it's definitely safer," Matt replies, taking a sip of his tea and turning his gaze to the clock tower. He looks at it for a moment, just fixated on it. Bonnie looks along.

"Three-thirty," Bonnie says, and Matt faces her. "You know, time didn't exist in 1994. And as confounded as that was, Damon and I did a lot together. It's unreal what you can do without time limits."

"Yeah," Matt agrees, using his straw to play around with his drink. "We wake up every day and feel like we have to start over. Doing the same thing over and over again. Like robots."

Bonnie nods. 1994 was so absurd to her. It felt peaceful but all the while was torture. It really made her wonder about what her Grams said about making sure she found peace. After all that's happened, there can be only one interpretation for Bonnie. It's either wait for peace to find her or she ventures out to find it herself. One way or another she will make Gram's words live in reality.

Matt tucks his hands into his pocket while he and Bonnie walk along the sidewalk down a familiar neighborhood in Mystic Falls. He listens to her talk lovingly about her four months with Damon. Bonnie didn't have much of a choice. That voicemail she left him the other night went on for longer than she thought, and Matt listened to the entire thing. Her entire exchange with Damon.

"Are you and Damon a thing or something?" Matt asks Bonnie. She looks at his erratic face as he waits for an answer from her.

Bonnie didn't give him a definite answer. Just something for him to think about. Approaching Bonnie's old home after walking in silence with each other, Matt looks at Bonnie and tells her that it's cool. She chuckles, a smile stretching across her face. Then, she turns and looks at her old house. Matt joins her.

Her smile hasn't faded, and she lifts her chin as if to smell something sweet and inviting. She blinks.

She wants to go inside but it's not her house anymore. The red mini-van parked in the driveway isn't any of her families. There is no fresh cut grass. No lilac's blossoming in the sun. The bushes aren't trimmed and the entire porch has been remodeled into a precarious, wooden deck. She looks down at the freshly painted gated fence in front of her. This is not her home anymore… just a place where she used to be.

Bonnie starts walking away. Matt follows behind her, giving one last look at Bonnie's old home.


	3. You

Matt approached his front door as the midday air begin to fill in. Bonnie looked up at the sun, standing beside him as he unlocks the front door. They walk inside to a dark living room, the blue curtains reflecting a blue tint onto the pasty walls.

He removed his varsity jacket and hung it on the coat rack near the door. Bonnie looked over, surprised at the jackets and coats hanging. Matt put his between a black peacoat and a red, puffy one.

He takes a few steps forward to a lamp that was sitting on a coffee table, near his white leather sofa. Bonnie tucks her hands into her leather jacket pockets, whipping her head to remove the bang from her view. Matt pulls the light switch on the lamp, but it doesn't turn on.

"Cozy," Bonnie spoke, biting her lip as her curious body leads her further into the living room. Matt swallows. He assumed the bulb was blew.

"More like consuming," Matt says as he crosses back to the front door to flick the light switch on the wall. Bonnie chuckles at his remark, stopping in front of an archway to the kitchen.

"Shit..." Matt dragged out. Bonnie turns to look at him and he flicks the switch again. He sighs, meeting Bonnie's concerned eyes. "Electricity is out." Matt nods, although he couldn't believe it.

Bonnie was speechless as Matt walks past her and down the hall. He goes into a room. Bonnie assumed its to change. The Fell family is holding a celebration in Tripp's honor. Bonnie found it a little weird, and a bit too soon? She was just supporting Matt, who really wanted her to go with him.

Bonnie walks to the sofa and leans on it. She looks down the hallway, her eyes slowly wandering down to the scuffed, wood floor.

Matt's room door opens and Bonnie's eyes avert up. He steps out, only wearing his jeans and brown boots. His pudgy white chest, Bonnie noticed, no different from when they were kids. It's a little toned than before, but the old Matt is definitely reminiscent in him still. At least Bonnie could see. Caroline, and Elena would see it too.

His chest rises as he attempts to vent to Bonnie. Leaning against the wall, he finally looks at Bonnie. She didn't care about his situation. Everyone struggles every now and then. Matt feels he needs to let her know. It's an ache, a burn, a nagging feeling inside of him that is forcing him to tell Bonnie what is up.

"What's up, Matt?" Bonnie lightens the mood, speaking in a playful voice. He relaxes his shoulders a bit, standing up straight and opening his mouth.

"As you can see, not much has changed," Matt begins, looking around and talking in his usual husky voice. His mushy face shapes his cheekbones as he purses his lips at Bonnie, his head shaking a little. Bonnie turns her body in his direction, listening.

"I still live in the house that I was raised in, bathed in..." He shrugs, his eyes glued to a corner of the room. "...um. I remember when we first got that leather sofa, and me and Vicki were so happy." Matt smiles as he gets lost in his memories, his eyes unmoved from the ceiling. The corner of Bonnie's mouth itches a smile as she watches him.

"And Bonnie it was just a fucking sofa!" Matt said. He laughs. "A stupid leather sofa and Vicki and I were so happy for it, because you know, we didn't have much." Matt's eyebrows decrease into a pensive expression as he looks at Bonnie. "So, when we got that sofa... it was like a new toy or something." Bonnie takes a deep breath, then turns to look at the sofa.

It is not new anymore. It's worn out, torn, and the orange puff is protruding from the inside.

"I've just been trying so hard to keep this place up... working extra shifts at the grill, doing some odd jobs here and there... but it's so hard." Matt continues.

"I know, Matt," Bonnie reassures him, meeting his blue eyes. "I know. If you need anything-"

Matt cuts her off, putting his hands up and shaking them in her direction: "No. No, Bonnie. I'll be fine. I just haven't worked as much lately between Tripp dying and the vampires and... you know."

Bonnie didn't know, and she stares at him, trying to find some understanding or grasp, but she couldn't.

"I'll be good, Bonnie. I just didn't want to leave you in the dark about my situation," Matt admitted. His mouth spreads out a bit, giving her a comforting smile. Bonnie nods. "I just have to put on a shirt, then we can go."

Matt turns around and walks back into his room. Bonnie goes to sit on the leather sofa, observing the living room more. A breeze poured in from an open window, the blue curtains flying up in the air. Bonnie walked over to it to close when she heard someone yelling. She leans closer to the window and the voices became more distinct.

"Yeah, and? So?" A girl's voice.

"I really don't want to do this," A guy's voice. Bonnie's eyes shift to the side. The voice is familiar.

"Well, you have to. If you expect to ever move on-" The girl continues.

"She was DEAD, Sarah!" Bonnie's mouth closes and she stands up, figuring out who it is.

Matt walks down the hall, buttoning a white shirt up his torso. Bonnie turns around to see him and is impressed with his outfit. She nods in approval just as he looks up at her.

"What?" Matt asks.

"You look real nice, Matt," Bonnie sincerely replied. "Where exactly are we going again?" Bonnie inquires, looking at her own outfit.

"Your outfit is fine." Bonnie glares at him with a smirk. Matt was wearing a dress shirt and pants. Bonnie wore black skinny jeans and a plaid red and black shirt. She liked to think she wasn't dressed properly for this event.

A knock came on the door. Bonnie turned to look and Matt strutted to the door and opens it. Jeremy, in all his lovesick glory, stands with his arm interlocked with Sarah's. The two she'd heard outside. She was right.

Jeremy locks eyes with Bonnie, and almost instantly, she looks away.

Sarah isn't much of a mystery to Bonnie anymore, at least in one aspect. This aspect being her talkative, intrusive personality. She talked the whole car ride to the Fell event, but what was so baffling to Bonnie is who she was talking to. Matt.

Bonnie rested her chin on her hand and looked at the trees and grass and cornfields that appeared and vanished in her view as they drove down the road. Jeremy would turn to look at her every now and then, he sat in the passenger seat while Sarah drove. She could feel his swollen eyes beaming into her skull. She never returned his longing, because looking at him would be like the sound of fingernails scratching across a chalk board.

Sarah and Jeremy enter the Fell mansion hand in hand, with Matt and Bonnie following behind. There was a wide staircase in front of them that had a blue rug stretched across it. As they ascended the staircase, there was a table at the top with photos, awards, and other things honoring Tripp Fell.

"Look," Bonnie said to Matt, pointing at the table. Jeremy turns his head a little as he hears Bonnie's voice. He peeks over his shoulder to glance at her, but she pays him no mind. Her eyes are trained on the table, as are Matt's.

Bonnie approaches the table, standing in awe and surprise, next to Matt.

"Wow," Bonnie begins, her head cocking to the side in shock, "Tripp was very busy."

"Yeah," Matt agrees, his eyes thinning as his next thought blurts out of his: "Because a vampire compelled him to forget the real reason for his wife's death..." Bonnie turned to look at Matt. "As soon as he entered Mystic Falls and discovered what truly happened, his mission up until a few weeks ago was to eradicate the vampire."

Bonnie turned back to look at the table. She saw a picture of Tripp and his wife, standing on a lawn in front of a house straight out of the American dream.

"Let's get inside," Matt says, brushing past her. She follows him into the ballroom.

The ball room was covered in even more shades of blue, with bits of white and black here and there. Circular tables were set up all across the center of the room, while the outskirts had banquet tables, a bar, and a large window that led out to an even bigger balcony. The sun beamed its rays through, oddly meshing with the dark colors of blue gorgeously. There were cards on the table that read the names of the guests attending.

The four of them stood in between two pillars, in which were arranged around the ballroom. Bonnie looks to her right and sees a full stage where a jazz band is playing. Sarah, Jeremy, and Bonnie follow Matt to their table.

"Damon would love this place," Bonnie mumbles to herself, a quaint smile filling her face as the music soothes, in tranquility, the conflicting nature of her mind. Matt furrows his brow, turning to look at Bonnie. It's all so new, this Bonnie and Damon thing, and Matt is still adjusting to Bonnie's mentions here and there.

"Why?" Matt asks as his face relaxes a bit.

"Because he turned it to a radio station composed of jazz once," Bonnie tells him as she lets her fingers run against the rough, blue table cloth laying on each table. It was some cheap material for such a fancy mansion as this one.

"That doesn't mean anything. You don't think you're looking a little to deep into things with Damon?"

Bonnie faces Matt as he finally finds their table. "Trust me, I know."

Matt cuts his eyes to the jazz band then back to the table. Bonnie sits down at her spot, which was unconveniently next to Jeremy.

It was so crowding. His presence was so consuming and crowding in the most negative ways. She wanted so badly to tell him off, but instead she tried to calm herself. Her eyes study the lilacs beautifully positioned in the vase. It must have took someone awhile to do each of these so conscientiously.

Bonnie presses her fingertips into her temple, her head leaning down slightly. She swallows, taking a deep breath, and stands up. Matt, Sarah, and Jeremy avert their eyes to her.

"I'll be right back," Bonnie walks away and sighs, relieved. She walks towards the window and opens the glass door to the balcony. Her mouth stretches slightly, and she folds her arms, captivated by the view. A maze in the backyard, not cliche at all. Her forearms rest on the rail and she leans over, closing her eyes and sucking in the still air.

Bonnie pulls out her phone. 3:00. She only wished it could be 3:00 forever. To be in this moment feels like a anticipated fleeting one, and she grips her phone tighter wanting it to last forever.

"Hey," A toneless voice starts behind her. It startled her, not physically, mentally. She blinks and straightens her posture, placing her hands by her side. She knew who it was, and even though she wanted this moment to last forever, this was a much needed, overdue conversation between her and her old love.

She turns her head to the side, seeing a masculine figure in her peripheral, then she turns around fully. Jeremy.

"Hey", Bonnie says with a smile, "How are you?" She faces front again, her eyes following the the maze's paths. Jeremy walks up next to her, looking at the view also. His eyes begin to jump.

"I'm... not that good," He replies, turning to face her. His eyes become filled with grief and pity. Pity for who? He didn't even know.

"If there is something you need to tell me, now would be the time," Bonnie hissed. She didn't turn to face him. Her eyes just drop to the floor. Jeremy slowly blinks and his mouth begins to coil in a bit, then he looks up at the sky and down again.

"What do you want to me to say?" Still toneless, his voice fades as he realizes something. Bonnie finally meets his confused gaze, hers struck with conviction.

"Caroline, Elena, Matt," Bonnie emphasizes each name through her teeth, neglecting to withhold her anger. "They all came to visit while they could, while I was alone on the other side..." Her voice begins to break and she stops to take a moment to gather herself. She faces front again and lifts her chin, inhaling.

Jeremy's lips tremble as he tries to reply: "I had finally moved on."

"Did you?" Bonnie replies in a tone that didn't need a reply. She glares at him. "I really wanted to see you, Jeremy. It really showed how much you cared about what we had when I didn't." She slowly faces forward again, her mouth agape. She felt good. She had thought Jeremy had this pent up resentment and emotion, but she did also.

As she blinks away tears, she feels a shift in her mind, like the blooming of a rose, and her mouth shuts in closure. Jeremy stares at her, his mouth opening in anticipation.

"So, what can we do to mend this?"

"It's mended. This is us now," Bonnie turns her body and faces him. She's confident this is the end, and he can see it all over her. The only thing Jeremy can do is nod. He doesn't want it to end this way, but Bonnie does. He can respect that.

She ends the conversation and turns to look at the maze again. Her and Jeremy could travel that maze and they'd never make it out. It's too complex, intricate, and challenging. He's not willing to meet Bonnie halfway, he's willing to say it, but he's not willing to put actions behind his words. This would lead to them finding their way out separately, and never looking back for each other, because his simplicity isn't enough for Bonnie. It's not enough. She knows this now.

She doesn't know what she wants, but she knows what she doesn't want. And the guy who is standing next to her, is not the guy she thought he was. In retrospect, he never was. He was normalcy, a way to escape this supernatural torture. Her love for him was real, but it was based in normality. And the way she understood things is that being a witch, things never would end well for her. Jeremy was one thing that was good for her.

Things are different now, and she holds the same ideas of herself and herself as a witch. But a guy like Jeremy isn't what she wants now. It's odd, because she wants to be normal and Jeremy is as close to normal as it gets, but that will never happen.

The aura between them jumps into awkward territory. Jeremy steps away from Bonnie, walking towards the glass door. He stops, a pensive look crossing his face. Then, he goes inside.

Bonnie sighs, as a weight feels lifted from her shoulder. She puts her hand on her other arm and looks down at her side, a tight-lipped smile creeping upon her caramel skin. She chuckles.

"BONNIE!"

Bonnie looks up and sees Kai waving in front of the entrance of the maze. He was holding onto a man from the party, who is clearly in distress. Kai points at Bonnie, then at himself. He then takes his fingers across his neck and points at the man. Bonnie raises an eyebrow and shakes her head. Kai shrugs, dragging the guy into the maze until they disappear. Bonnie opens her mouth in concern, then closes it. She doesn't want to get dragged into anything in relation to Kai. Then, she hears the terrifying screams of the man.

_Tread lightly_, Bonnie thought as she runs back into the ballroom.  
>-<p>

Damon stands before the Mystic Falls magic border, his eyes running down the invisible line. Elena was standing next to him, patting her thighs with her hands.

"There has to be a way in," Damon says, his face filled with determination. He felt a slight sting as he reaches over the border a bit.

"Not unless you want to die, Damon," Elena rolls her eyes. She takes a glance at him.

"There's a way in, Elena. You just have got to stop thinking in that limited, realistic process. We are vampires! I died and came back! Bonnie, died twice, and came back, twice! You just got to have hope."

Elena looks away from him, and Damon sighs. She folds her arms.

"You and Bonnie... something happen?" Damon acted like he didn't know, though he did. It just seemed like Elena wanted him to ask that. So, he did. He's been trying lately, to reignite something between them, but there's no spark. Nothing.

"She doesn't want to be friends with me anymore," Elena tells him. "I don't know how I feel about it yet, it was all so abrupt."

"You have to understand... she's going through a lot," Damon speaks in this deep, soft spoken voice. He smiles genuinely, and the corner of his eyes wrinkle as he thinks of Bonnie. "We had each other over there, Elena. Four months. Four long, excruciating, drawn out months with the likes of a stubborn little witch. So, when she ended up alone I knew even Bonnie Bennett couldn't toughen it out."

Elena was surprised at what she heard. He talked about Bonnie as if they'd been friends, but the last thing she knew of them is that they couldn't stand each other. They tolerated each other, and had some understanding, but would never agree to be stuck with one another.

"I'm so confused... you guys actually got along?" Elena asks.

"Well, one way to shut her up is to place some bet. If I won monopoly, she would have to shut up for one night, consistently. So, I would be banker and I'd cheat because that Bonnie... She's a diabolical little mink."

Damon's expression softens up: "Funny thing about that scenario, is that every night I'd win and every night, _I _couldn't shut up. And, not once did she say she didn't want to hear me talk."

Elena pondered this. She'd never seen Damon talk in such sincerity. A smile itched across her face as she stared at him. He smiled back, for a moment, then it faded. His eyes slowly dropped to the grass.

"What?" Elena asked, searching for his eyes.

"Nothing," Damon says, his face lit up. There was something, and it was about Elena. He just couldn't figure it out. He looks at the field before him, into Mystic Falls, and falls into a pensive state.

Stefan walks up and stands beside Elena.

"We should go... find another way," Stefan suggests. Damon cuts his eyes to Stefan's direction. Stefan went looking to find Liv and Luke, hoping that they'll help in trying to remove the magic barrier around Mystic Falls. Damon figures that Stefan couldn't find Liv and Luke, or maybe they didn't want to be found. He swallows, a shiver going through his bones. He turns to face the both of them.

"Why don't we ask Bonnie, I mean I know she's leaving—"

"Wait... wait, wait, wait..." A look of annoyance crosses Damon's lips as they froze, agape. "Did you just say she's leaving?" His voice was thick; a fuse of resentment and fear. His gaze leaves Elena's eyes and travels from point to point, spot to spot, all the while his breaths become rapid.

"She is... why are you acting like you care?" Elena said to him. His eyes widen as he gets closer to her, steaming. Stefan approaches them, stepping closer to Elena from behind.

"You didn't think to tell me?!" Damon yells, not regretting a single word. Stefan narrowed his eyes, surprised by his reaction.

"Damon..." Stefan mumbles over Elena's shoulder, trying to calm him down.

"I don't have to think to tell you anything, Damon. Look, I'm sorry I erased those memories. It was selfish of me, but we are NOT in a relationship."

Damon's nose flared for a second. He was so angry with her for not telling her this... but he thought about it. He looked at Stefan, his gaze confounded, then back to Elena, whose glare mused dangerously. He understands now.

"You're right, Elena," Damon begins, "We're not in a relationship. Because if so, if you even remembered a semblance of what we had, maybe you would have thought to tell me."

Damon steps back, taking one last look at the both of them, then zooms away.

Damon knocks on the door to Bonnie's dorm. He waits patiently, for her, for Bonnie to get it. His fingers bounce against the side of his leg as he waits, but no one answers the door. He knocks again, frantically, then stops mid-knock. His eyes narrow and lips part as he thinks about why he is here. It was a pull, an attraction, a link, something. Something directed him here after hearing she was leaving, and he didn't know what it was. He only knew that it felt real.

He jiggles the handle.

"Bonnie," He says, "Bonnie! Open the door," His voice gains some base. He runs a hand through his dark hair, then rests his thumb on his bottom lip. "Bonnie... Caroline!" He yells, then his voice lowers to a mumble as he says this: "Someone."

He jiggles the door handle again. He stops. He takes a step away from the door, and leans his head back slightly. He stares at the door until he isn't so tense anymore. He stares until his eyebrows relax and his blue eyes reduce themselves to inaudible calm oceans. He stares and stares and stares until the bones in his neck feel less rigid. He stares until the bones in his body reflect his flux of a mind, until everything is as serene as the fog of night.

He walks away from Bonnie's dorm, not looking back.

"Kai!" Bonnie shouted standing in front of the entrance to the maze. He didn't reply to her. He was purposefully ignoring her, and it only made Bonnie furious. She wasn't going to let him hurt anyone. She took a look back at the mansion, an attempt to escape her old self, but she doesn't let it take hold. She marches into the maze, feeling suffocated as the narrow, perfectly trimmed bushes surround her.

Up ahead, she sees four pathways traveling vertically and horizontally. When she reaches it, she hears the muffled screams of the man and Kai:

"Stop your incessant cries!" He didn't even try to be silent. Bonnie looks to the left, her bottom lip jutted out.

"Kai, stop playing games," Bonnie says impatiently, walking in his direction. She hears the muffled screams again and sprints to the corner, turning it, and heading down another narrow pathway. She runs past an opening, stops, and runs back to it. It was the man. He was sitting in a chair, with a long rope tied weirdly around his body. It looped around his neck with two ends crossing his torso, going down the sides of his thighs near his buttock, then up through the small space between his thighs. Bonnie looks closer as the rope then is secured around either side of his legs, and knotted at the bottom. It was inescapable.

Bonnie looked up at the black bandana pushing his tongue back, making it so he couldn't talk. She ran up to him as the man cried and shook. Undoing the knot looked impossible, she searched for another way. Leading herself behind the man, she discovered a note. It read:

_This is a trap. - Kai =D_

The man screamed as an arrow pierced his chest. Bonnie looked up, a breath escaping from her mouth, seeing Kai standing up on top of the bushes with his crossbow. He bit his bottom lip and stared at her, charmingly.

"Hello, Bon—whoa!" Kai starts as he loses his balance. He regains it, his arms spread out as he steadies himself. He chuckles, then cackles loudly. "So, we meet again?"

Bonnie's face darkens. She hates him and she hates that he's still around. Just hearing his voice made her cheeks burn. He hops onto the ground and sighs, dramatically, smirking at Bonnie. She takes a step back, running into the stone wall behind her, which was disguised with bushes.

Kai stares at the dead man, itching his head with his crossbow. Bonnie looks down at the man, then at Kai, her mouth wrinkles in disgust.

"You tie him up like this?" Bonnie asks, gawking at him with resentful eyes.

"I did!" Kai says delighted. He shows his bright smile to her, circling around the man to get to her. Bonnie lifts her chin, keeping her eyes planted on him. She steps away, trying to get as far away from him as possible. Her hands travel along the wall, looking for something to defend herself with. "Call it BDSM, call it kinky..." Kai's eyes slowly fall on the dead man's hair, and he strokes it. Bonnie's eyes fill with contempt. She unconsciously inches forward, unnoticeable to Kai. "I call it Kai's guide to getting down!"

He places a finger on the rope that's on the man's neck, and cuts his eyes to Bonnie, who is slowly moving towards the exit. Kai lifts his crossbow at her while tilting his head.

"Get that away from me," Bonnie tells him in a singsong voice.

"Stop trying to leave," Kai replies in a mocking tone. "We have to talk."

"Then, speak. And stop stroking that dead man's hair."

Kai looks down at his hand, in which was still rubbing the man's hair. His eyes widen in embarrassment and he pulls away from the man. "So," Kai begins, flicking his fingers spontaneously as if the man's hair had a lot of dandruff, "I still can't go anywhere." His eye's meets Bonnie's, who sarcastically smiles and shakes her head.

"Again, what does this have to do with me?" Bonnie, still looking for a way out, slid her hands into her back pocket, continuing to walk back out to the maze.

"Again, you don't have your magic. So, stop trying to leave or I'm going to shoot you."

Bonnie quickly draws a throwing knife from her pocket, whipping her wrist and arm towards Kai in a swift and smooth motion. Bonnie opens her mouth in shock as the knife got Kai in the stomach, and she hears a voice in her head. A familiar, annoying voice.

"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Damon looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head. Bonnie traced the veins in his wrist up to his forearm as he clawed at the air. He was so frustrated, so disheartened that Bonnie couldn't get this knife throwing thing down.

"It's hard!" Bonnie yells, standing in the center of the Salvatore kitchen.

"Try harder!" Damon yells back at her, walking up to her. Bonnie narrows her eyes at him, then looks away, holding back her animosity. Damon smacks his teeth, walking past her. "You just have got to stop thinking about it." He stops and turns around. "Face me, okay."

Bonnie sighs and turns around, holding the small knife in her hand. She throws her hands up, midair: "What?"

"We don't really get along, you know, and I'd hate for you to one day be pissed I rained on your witchy parade, which by the way you're doing an awful job at now-"

"I'm still-"

Damon puts a finger up. "Let me finish." Bonnie sighs, frustratedly and focuses on the china cabinet behind him. "And I don't want us to be apart and you not have your powers and not be able to handle yourself against whomever is here with us. I want you to feel protected... is that so weird to ask?"

"It is, actually," Bonnie walks past him, "I'm the last person you'd want to protect."

"But you're the only person who's by my side... right now."

After a brief pause, Bonnie nods.

"Okay, I'm going to try again. And this time, I'm going to get it!" She grins.

"Ha ha! That's the Bonnie I know!"

Damon claps his hands together and rubs them, preparing himself for Bonnie's attempt. Her target's been spot on, probably because it's him, but he's looking for accuracy.

Bonnie puts her hand behind her back, then whips it out with the knife leaving her wrist. It flips towards Damon, who catches it. He spins it in his hand while the perfect paleness of his cheeks creased a solace smile.

"Try it again," Damon says, tossing the knife back to her. She catches it, putting her hand behind her back.

Damon sat on the stairs, which were not too far from Bonnie's dorm. His leg bounced as he waited for Bonnie to return home. He'd called her, he'd text her, he'd done every type of communication to reach her. He looked down at his leg, where a folded piece of paper was, and his leg stopped bouncing.

"Damon?" A squeaky voice shouted his name, he looked up, his thin lips forming an oval. His mouth slowly closes as he sees Caroline. He stands up, walking down the steps towards her. "Elena's not here."

"I know," Damon replied.

"So, why are you?" Caroline questioned. She waited for an answer, but his unwavering eyes transmitted nothing. She shrugged, got out her keys and unlocked her dorm. She stopped, and turned around. "Did you need something, Damon?"

Damon shook his head, and stepped away. Caroline goes into her dorm and closes the door. He walks back to the stairs and sits, interlocking his fingers and putting them up to his mouth.


	4. Pretty Girl

Spit slid between Bonnie's perked lips, down like an elastic rubber band to touch the calm water that was inside the paper cup. She wiped her mouth and looked over at the short, black rope entangled on the table. She quickly grabbed it and hovered it over the cup. Peeking over her shoulders, she sees Kai is still out from her knife throw, sprawled out on the dirt floor.

The two are just outside of the Mystic Falls border, in an abandoned barn on the brink of falling apart. Her magic was only successful outside of the border, so she brought him here. To keep him incapacitated and under her will. Maybe her relationship with Elena was founded on innocence, but it was further constructed by treachery. They learned to get what they want, to save themselves, and sometimes, at the expense of others.

Bonnie looked up at the broken ladder above her, leading to an upper area in the barn, trying to picture that girl. Long dark curls and an honest smile from cheek to cheek; it's a moment of the past now. That girl reminiscent of a distant friend moved like the wind; sudden yet unforgettable.

She dipped the rope in the cup and swirled it around, thinking about how Damon knew Kai was attracted to her before she even realized it. It was embarrassing, even if it was just Damon. _Damon, _she thought. The corner of her mouth stretched.

Kai groans and Bonnie turned around, making her way over to him. She analyzed his body, her eyes wandering from his head to his neck to his nicely built torso and she thought of every horrible, torturous thing she could do to him.

_It's just the two of us_, Bonnie thought. Her head turned to the side as her devilish eyes stayed planted on his cute face. _Just the two of us, and no one would ever know._ Her eyes narrowed as she looks at the knife, still deep in his gut. She grips it and pulls it out, evoking a striking pain within his abdomen. He flinches.

As she stands up to get the chair, she feels a sharp pain in her lower left abdomen, faltering a bit in her strut. It doesn't concern her. Not as much as Kai concerns her.

She grabs the chair, pulling it across the dirt and putting it next to Kai. Shuffling around the chair, she reaches under Kai and gets a grip of his light blue, jean jacket. She grunts when pulling Kai up and onto the chair. His eyes blink softly, as his dizzying vision focuses itself. One of his arms drops off his lap and to the side while Bonnie walks over to the cup.

The rope is twisted and twined in itself like a black ball of water snakes. The sun seeps through the cracks of the wooden boards of the barn. Little slits of sunlight shine into the cup. As Kai sighs, slowly awakening from his involuntary slumber, Bonnie reaches into the cup and pulls out the rope. She walks back over to Kai, watching the effects of her knife throw dissipate from his body. He's fighting it. Bonnie had soaked the knife in a synthetic sleeper immediately taking effect on impact. She knew that Mystic Falls being free of vampires didn't mean there was less danger, it just meant less danger of the supernatural kind.

She tied Kai's hands behind the chair with the black rope. It dripped onto the dirt floor, forming small puddles of brown grain. Bonnie looks up at the back of Kai's tilted head and stands up. She circles around to the front of him to study his woozy face.

Her phone starts vibrating and she looks down at her pants, reaching in her pocket. A single bang falls down from behind her ear, and she whips her head back up, staring at Kai as he moves slow and lethargic-like.

"Hello," Bonnie said as she presses the phone against her ear. She hears nothing at first, just silence. She swallowed. Then the corner of her eyes crinkled and she felt something lift inside of her. Silence is nothing of the unfamiliar when it's something grown accustom to with another individual. This person for Bonnie happens to be, non-other than the witty and unlawfully charming Damon Salvatore. She sighs so happily, rubbing her forehead with her palm.

She hears a deep chuckle from the other line. "Hey Bonnie," Damon replied.

Bonnie turned around and she could have sworn she saw Damon's wry smile in the several rays of the sun. Or maybe she was drowning in happiness that it's what she wanted to see. Either way, it put a big, unregretful smile on her face.

"Hey," Bonnie said, as if it was a secret she was keeping. She takes a step, wondering why he called. And she was prepared to ask him but she loved this silence. A part of it had an allure to it; it brought her back into a world where she saw herself. All of her _self. _

Her chest rises as she begins to sigh, and relieve herself of this selfishness, because this was selfish. To Bonnie, using Damon, this weird bond they've formed, to make her feel good is kind of selfish. She blames it on him though, for starting these moments in 1994. It was him.

"What do you want?" Bonnie asks, smiling.

"I want you to let me out of this!" Kai screams from behind her. Bonnie rolls her eyes, and before Damon could say anything, _anything_, Bonnie just said: "I have to go Damon, I'm sorry."

She hangs the phone up and glowers at Kai.

"I'm sorry," Kai begins, "Did I just cock-block?" He smirks, continuing in his sarcastic tone: "I did, didn't I?"

Bonnie hated his snarky looks. She continues to stare at him, infuriated, as she approaches him.

"You could say, I've been cock-blocking since 1994?" Kai says, revealing a smile shortly after.

"Shut up," Bonnie says, her arms crossed while she stands in front of him. Kai opens his mouth, about to say something, but he cocks his head. His eyes trace over every inch of Bonnie's body. He starts to show that adorable smile, and Bonnie turns her head, getting a little freaked out. It was such a waste of a higher power's effort to create an attractive face on a psychotic person.

"Mh, mh, mh," Kai hummed, wanting so badly to jump Bonnie's bones. To one, do pleasurable things to a pretty girl. And two, do unforgiving and sinful things to her unscathed and smooth skin. He bites at her making the sound of a clink.

"Don't look at me that way," Bonnie said, turning away in disgust.

"What am I doing here, Bonnie? Are you finally going to tell me why you've been keeping me around?" Kai asked. Bonnie turns back around, searching for even just a bit of sarcasm. Too bad he was serious, which was to Bonnie's dissatisfaction. She just wanted to jam her knife right back into the wound, maybe he'll realize that she is not the one keeping him here.

"Kai, I'm going to tell you this once and for the last time, I have no idea what you are talking about," Bonnie tells him. Kai shakes his head, angrily, as if he knows Bonnie is lying. He starts shifting around in his chair, trying to get out, flailing around like a little child. Bonnie shakes her head playfully and grins. "I spelled the rope with a technique I learned when YOU left me by myself in 1994. I just want to say thank you."

Kai tries to calm his breathing as he stared at the floor. His face is still coiled in madness, and his eyes avert to Bonnie. "What's this technique you learned?" Kai was interested, a bit. Maybe.

Bonnie could still hear the seriousness in his voice, but it was different this time. She assumed it was compliance, not interest, which provoked this seriousness. And that he realized that he wasn't the one in charge this time. She was.

"Just an old spell book I found while alone in 1994," Bonnie said to him. He looked away from her, then back again. He sat up straight and clenched his teeth. He wasn't going anywhere, not unless Bonnie would let him.

"Which taught you how to do what?"

Bonnie let out a laugh. "If you're wondering about that little disappearing act you and your family are so good at, don't worry. It's Parker family exclusive."

Kai narrows his eyes at Bonnie, and she saw his jaws suck in a bit. He flared his nostrils, trying to put his anger in a good place. He sighed through his nose, giving Bonnie a fake smile that stretched across his face as he leaned forward.

"Then what?" Kai said, his patience thinning, "What? What exactly did you do that was so good, so clever that merits a mention by the likes you to the likes of me?"

"My spit is covered in that rope," Bonnie said, a serious edge in her voice. Not a smirk or a smile on her face. She just lifted her chin proudly and watched Kai squirm like a leech in the sun. A leech. That's exactly what he was.

"Ew!" Kai begin moving again, but he stopped suddenly. Looking up into the corner of the barn, he should have known he wasn't going to be leaving any time soon. She is a Bennett. He tugged on his bottom lip with his teeth as he chuckled. He really should have seen this coming. "You're very dirty, Bennett." Kai's brow jumped up and down as he looked at her. "I'd love to see how that plays out in the bedroom."

Bonnie looked on in absolute revulsion. Kai's face shook, as if he'd felt a cold chill, and his mouth opened slowly as he imagined Bonnie in her bedroom. With him. His tongue made a clicking sound his it dropped from the roof of his mouth to the bottom.

"You know why you're here, don't you?" Bonnie said.

"Yeah. I do. Let me guess, you're sick of being followed by me?"

"Correct," Bonnie quickly replied back.

"Well, one of us is lying."

"Well, then I guess it's time for a little sleuth or poof!"

Kai's bottom lip shifted to the side as his nerves swelled up inside of him. No trace of futile sincerity crossed Bonnie's face as he observed her. Anxious, he knew he had to choose one of two choices. He could latch onto his animosity that's growing inside of him and use it as a tool to escape, or just try to find out what her motives are.

He swallowed, following Bonnie as she circled around him like a vulture. "What do you mean, poof?" He felt like a dead squirrel struggling to retain the last few minutes of his life. Like prey, all of a sudden.

Bonnie smiled, her eyes peering down at Kai's fluffy, black hair. "You know what I mean, silly!"

Kai's nerves crept over every inch of his body and he felt himself relegating into a position he'd never once been in before… submission. "But I thought you said that the disappearing act was a Parker family exclusive?" He taps his foot, in sync with his beating heart constantly beating faster and faster. He sees the sway of Bonnie's hand in his lower peripheral and swallows again, closing his eyes.

Bonnie ran her hands through hair. Shudders of Kai's breath went into her ears. She stops in front of him, leaning down to his face. She puts a hand in his hair, massaging it softly. Kai opens his eyes, meeting hers with conflict. "When did I ever say I was going to make you disappear?" She stares, her mouth agape, and Kai could have sworn he saw a twinkle in her eyes. "I have better, more dismemorable ways…"

He couldn't take it anymore.

She drags her delicate fingers to the side of his face and cups it, "…of making you go… _poof_."

As Bonnie pulls her hand away, Kai tries to bite it and his top lip drags along her palm.

"What're you DOING to me?!" Kai said, his anger erupting. And it felt good. He was completely done with the mind games Bonnie is throwing at him. It was the first time he'd realized how scary she is. Or how scary she can be.

"You're nervous."

"You're wrong," Kai growled, letting his rage in. It was like a drug for him.

"You're nervous," Bonnie glares at him. "Admit it." She places her hands on his knees and his foot stops tapping. All of his attention is given to her as their faces are inches from each other. "You're doing this."

"Wow, Bonnie, I didn't know you were capable of being sexy. What're you going to do? Kiss me?" Kai perks his lips and Bonnie turns away, grossed out. Kai lets out a throaty chuckle, his lips thinning.

"You wish." She walks a few steps away, then stops and turns back around. "But what I am going to do is ask you a series of questions. Answer one wrong and… poof. 555-ByeKai." Bonnie winks at him and Kai's face shakes as if he's about to explode. A burst of deep screams come from his mouth.

Bonnie tries not to laugh as Kai's face is flushed red. She places a finger on her chin, thinking about the first question. It's bothering him and she knows. And as he stares at her with malevolent intent, he knows that she knows.

"Calm down," Bonnie says. Kai huffs through his mouth and the tingling sensation bouncing in his bones starts to go away. There was something about her voice, he couldn't quite decipher what, but there was a powerfulness to it that he gravitated to. He locked eyes with her just as she was opening her mouth.

"So," Bonnie folds her arms and takes a step closer to him, "What's your motive here, Kai? What's the move? Why haven't you left?"

Kai had to hold back a laugh because again and again he's told her he doesn't know. He drops his head, then lifts his eyes back up to her impatient face.

"I told you, Bonnie," Kai's voice lows to build sincerity, "I don't know."

"That's not going to work for me," Bonnie told him straight.

Kai angrily replied, while lifting his head up to her, "You're pissing me off, girl."

"Likewise, _boy_. And remember what position you're in right now," Bonnie's arms fall to her sides as she steps in front of Kai, "I could make you cry if I wanted too."

Kai flinches at her from his chair, staring at her intensely. "Then do it."

Bonnie's fist balls up and she throws it into Kai's nose, stumbling onto him after the hit.

"Ah! Fuck, Bonnie!"

She felt a sting in her knuckles, especially when she pressed her palms onto Kai's shoulders to lift herself off of him. He turned to look at her, his lips almost grazing hers, and he took a deeper breath as he watched her. The tiniest bit of shame stretches into his eyes as he looked at her, his mouth agape.

"Ass," Bonnie mutters, pushing herself off of him. He closes his mouth, stepping out of his hypnotic trance. He stuck his tongue in his cheek and rubbed his fingers along his nostril, seeing blood on his fingers. He shoots a look at Bonnie, his eyes thinning slightly. The warm thickness of blood rests on his tongue as he sticks his finger into his mouth.

Bonnie's brow furrows in reaction to Kai, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Letting himself delve into serious territory, he studies her for a moment. Bonnie notices his seriousness, though subtle, but doesn't acknowledge it. She just considers it's one of his many mind games and continues to glare at him unapprovingly. He down casts his eyes, then flicks his gaze back up at her and delivers a charming smile.

"Just trying to set the mood…" Kai cocks his head to the side, "Is that why that punch was so powerful? Did you," He taps under his nostril, "use your magic?"

Bonnie touches the skin under her nostril and feels blood. She stares at the blood in amazement, then wipes her nose with her hand.

"You have two seconds—" Bonnie starts, the tone of her voice on the verge of collapse.

"Jo," Kai quickly interrupts her. Bonnie looks at him attentively, shaking her head. She always knew he was hiding something. "Jo is my sister and I think she's the one keeping me here."

Bonnie slowly sits on the dirt floor. "Jo, the woman who works at the hospital. Elena's mentor."

"Good job. Putting two and two together."

Bonnie gives him a sarcastic smile, before indulging in her own impatience. "Well, go on."

"Look, I don't know if this is it… but I literally cannot leave an area sometimes, it's like I'm in an invisible case or something. And every time I find myself trapped somewhere, I find you."

"Get to the point."

"The point is, Miss Impatient, is that there is something magical about it. My sister's a witch, and so are you. One of you is doing it."

Bonnie raises her brow, "It's not me."

Kai nods, turning his head to look elsewhere. He knew she would say that, but he thought she deserved to at least know the full story. Bonnie placed her hands behind her and leaned back.

"Though, there was one place where I didn't feel like I was trapped..." Kai says, facing Bonnie. She waits for him to continue, but he doesn't.

"What?"

"Mystic Falls."

Bonnie's eyes search the barn. "The no magic border," Bonnie says delighted. She hates that a psychopathic nutcase is following her around, and anything close to finding answers will make her feel better. Safer. Kai assumes this is the case as he licks his bottom lip and watches the corner of her eyes wrinkle.

He doesn't wallow in that though. He just found potential freedom… Mystic Falls.

"The no magic border," Bonnie repeats feeling rejuvenated, "Maybe there is something to your magic theory…"

Bonnie stands up and dusts herself off.

"Yeah, so is it you?"

"I think we ought to pay your sister a visit."

Kai shifted his wrists in the rope, peering over his shoulder. "You think so?"

Bonnie turns her head, surprised at Kai's remark. He was the one who continued to harass her about this problem of his. And now that she's willing to help, he's retracting.

"Yeah. I do."

"Too bad. I don't trust you," Kai divulges. "You're a Bennett, you've threatened to make me go poof, whatever that means, and you have every reason to hate me… I don't trust you."

He was honest, and Bonnie could sense a lingering fear in his voice, but the lack of Kai wit and wry smiles made for a very genuine look. It empowered her, but she knew what she should be focusing on.

"I'm not asking for you to trust me."

Bonnie's phone starts vibrating again and she turns around. She pulls it out of her pocket and sees three missed calls from Damon. Hearing the sound of something snapping, she whips back around to see Kai standing in front of the broken pieces of the chair. A whispered gasp forces itself from her mouth.

"Well, would you look at that?" Kai asked before he pushes Bonnie through the wooden boards with her absorbed magic. Bonnie rolled onto the green grass, stopping on her stomach. She wrinkles her mouth as she averts her eyes back to him. "Looks like that little technique of yours isn't as powerful as my rage."

Bonnie picks herself up, lifting the broken boards up around her as she stood. Her head slowly leans back as she wobbles a bit, her bottom lip hanging down.

"This is the end," she says softly as the boards around her instantly catch fire and her arm raises towards him. Kai turns and bolts into the barn. Bonnie pushes her hand in his direction and the wooden boards fly at him.

He looks back and ducks just in time, leaving one of the boards to crash into the wall. He hops trips over a hill of dirt as the rest of the wooden boards smash, creating a small fire that outlines a hole formed in the barn walls.

Kai desperately looks at the hole. He pushes off of his toes to make it out but stops when he sees Bonnie run into the barn. His mouth drops as he takes a step back, trying to read Bonnie's intense face. She raises a brow at his trepidation.

He looks behind him seeing that there is no way to run, just the decaying wooden walls of the barn. His breathing calms as he realizes he's trapped. He purses his lips into a smirk and turns to face Bonnie, smiling to show all of his teeth.

"Can we talk about this at all?" Kai pleads. Bonnie replies by putting her palm up at him and lowering her gaze. Kai backs up until he is against a wall, forgetting that there's no more running.

He coughs. His tongue moves over his lower lip and he tastes blood. His body jerks forward as he coughs again, bending over. Bonnie takes a step towards him and she coughs too. She blinks, looking around the room and feeling disoriented.

The tightening around Kai's neck loosens and he looks up to see Bonnie coughing again.

She wipes her finger across her lips and sees blood on it. She gasps, hearing footsteps quickly fall against the ground. She looks up to see Kai hopping out of the barn through the fiery hole. She chases after him, but stumbles and falls onto the chair.

Almost suddenly, the pain went away. Bonnie pondered what happen as she watched Kai run back into Mystic Falls.

"Where's Bonnie?" Matt whispered to Jeremy as he sat down at the table. Jeremy shrugged, and Matt exchanged a look with Sarah that had her shifting her gaze to the man speaking up on the podium.

"Matt Donavon!" The man on the podium startled Matt. He itched his head as his nerves got the better of him, and the curious eyes of the applauding individuals averted to him. He'd forgotten for a quick moment that he was giving his acceptance speech today, because he wanted Bonnie to be here so badly. Matter of fact, as he pressed his lips together to give a warm look and walked up to the podium, maybe he wanted all of his friends there.

Then, he remembered they were vampires, and he looked at Sarah, and as he arrived to the podium that appealing grin crossed over his face.

"Well," Matt cleared his throat, still a little shaken about being caught off guard, "I'd just like to first thank Mr. Stevens for that wonderful introduction. I really appreciated that…"

Silence. Complete and unruly silence. He looked at all the considerate eyes in the audience, glamorous and fashionable in their looks, and could not remember a time where so many people cared about what he thought. He was being promoted to Trip's position in his community protection group, and he didn't have anything to say.

"Oh," Matt blurts, remembering he wrote pointers on index cards just in case he arrived in the scenario he found himself in now. He reaches into his pocket while giving a smile to the audience, then he sees Kai enter in from the balcony, dusting himself off inconspicuously.

Kai looked behind him, seeing Bonnie sprinting from outside the maze. He speeded up his steps and weaved between the tables and to the doors to the hall.

Bonnie approaches the stairs in the back yard of the Fell mansion. She walked up the curved staircase up to the balcony. Looking inside through the windows, she sees people clapping. Then, she looks on stage and sees Matt being patted on the back by a man. Matt looked so proud and happy, a bit overwhelmed, but happy all the same. Suddenly, his smile drifted his usual brooding face, and his eyes narrowed with intent. Bonnie followed his gaze and found him looking at Sarah, who nodded as Bonnie lay eyes on her. She stood, and walked out of the ballroom to the hall, as if she was on a mission.

Bonnie reached for the handle when she saw herself in clear glass. Hell-bent eyes and lips shrunken from pain and hatred. She could see the physical change in herself. An eerie and frightening surprise, developing in her body, in every aspect of her, in secret.

_It could have been different_, she thinks as she looks at her reflection, darkened by the bright rays of the sun.

She looks closer and sees a familiar face through the glass window, and through the fleeting movements of people… Kai. She swings open the door and watches him whisk away from the door on the other side of the ballroom.

"Bonnie!" She hears Matt call her name and turns to see him waving off people who wanted to talk with him.

Bonnie conjures up a smile. "Look at you," She says while pushing his shoulder a bit.

Humble, Matt doesn't smile too hard. "Hey, what's going on? Why is Kai here?"

"He's been following me."

"What?"

"Look, I need to find him. You go… be the leader you were meant to be."

Matt starts to shake his head and in classic Matt fashion, put others before himself. "But—"

"I'm serious. Kai is a dangerous person, he will ruin everything you have here," Bonnie quickly tells him, "He'll ruin you."

"I'd rather that then have him ruin you."

Bonnie averts her eyes to another place, lifting her chin, then back to Matt. "It's too late for me."

Matt understood. He gave no indication of it, but he didn't have to.

Bonnie brushes past him and he latches onto her fingers, stopping her. His lips part and he turns to look at her, a spark of sympathy in his blue globes. He pulls her back and hugs her.

Bonnie rubs his back and pulls away and they exchange looks with one another.

"Congratulations, Matt," Bonnie says congenially, turning around and heading towards the door.

_1994_

Bonnie whips into the Salvatore mansion driveway with Damon's Camaro. While she's pulling up, she sees Damon walking outside of the mansion with just pants. As she parks the car in front of the mansion, he places his hands on his hips.

"Someone's mad," Bonnie says to herself while putting the car in park. She turns to look at Damon, who was nibbling on his bottom lip.

"You stole my car," Damon announced, a little aggravated.

"You stole my peace," Bonnie retorts. "Also, don't stand like that. You look like a very disappointed father."

"Only because you act like a goddamned child," Damon replied, defensively.

"Did I hit a nerve?" Bonnie asks, while getting out of the car.

"What were you doing driving MY car?"

"I was scoping out the town. No one," Bonnie sighs, her gaze drifting to the hood of the car, "There is no one else here. Just us."

Damon could sense the torture in her voice, and he saw it in her face also. She was so good at making the best out of a dire situation, but sometimes she'd slip up. It could be the minimal shift in her lip, a tremble, or the way she lifts her chin as if she's placing those irreverent thoughts into a distant place only she can tap into.

He sucks in a breath before teasing, "So, how does it drive?"

"Well," Bonnie said.

_Present_

Damon gripped the steering wheel of his Camaro. The memories of him and Bonnie passed through his mind vivid and quick throughout the day.

_Every day,_ he thought as he sat back in his seat. It beget more questions than answers of their time in 1994, and it always leave him confused. It leaves him following a hunch. It always leads him to Bonnie.

He opens the door and steps out onto curb, focusing on Bonnie's dorm in Whitmore.

Moments later, he knocked on her door and Caroline answered. A breath of air escapes him when he sees it her and not Bonnie. His hand dropped from the air and into his back pocket as he flashed a smile at Caroline.

"You're here, again…" Caroline says. "Elena…"

"Wait," Damon says, his eyes growing wide at Caroline. He pulls her out of the room and shuts the door, seeing Elena's quaint face before it shuts. "I'm not looking for Elena. I'm looking for you."

"Why?" Caroline asks, incredulously.

"Because. I think we could convince Bonnie to stay."

"Sure, yeah, I can. But you…?"

Damon itches his cheek with his thumb and licks his lips, then gives Caroline the coldest look.

"Yes," In a serious tone, he replies, "Now please." Damon nods his head to the left and Caroline thins her lips together, sighing. "Just wait in my car."

She walks pass him. He watches her until she gets to the doors, then his eyes drop to the floor and they scatter frantically across it. He turns around, looking behind him. But he doesn't find it. The wrinkles on his forehead begin to crease, until the feeling of hope enters his body. His mouth drops within the sudden realization that maybe, just maybe, Bonnie got it.

The room to her door swings open and Elena is standing there, holding a note and glaring at Damon.

"What are you doing with that?" Damon asks.

"Who's this note to?" Elena asks, but Damon doesn't answer. "Damon!"

"It's to Bonnie!" Damon yelled, the veins in his neck appearing from frustration. "So, give it to me."

"What happen between you two in 1994?" Elena asks, a disgusted look on her face.

"We survived, Elena."

Damon figured, those words would shut her up, because he was tired of arguing with her. He was just so exhausted of it. Elena exhausted him, and he wished these words would shut her up. But, instead, they hit her like a train. Damon saw it in her face.

"What does that mean?" She questioned him.

"It means I'm not obligated to tell you anything!"

"Why? If we were SO in love, why wouldn't you tell me that?"

Damon shrugs. "If you want to know something, why don't you go ask your best friend Bonnie… who needs you right now!"

"She said she didn't want to be friends anymore!"

"So?" Damon's frustration culminated into animosity, as Elena's stubbornness reversed into stupidity. "You don't just throw away a history you have with someone! It is impossible to pretend that every moment, everything you've shared is easily disposable… I will never believe that. And I will never forget what you did. Because it fucking hurt."

Damon walked up to Elena and snatched the note from her hands, then stormed down the hall. He didn't look back. He couldn't. He didn't know how much it affected him that Elena erased every memory of them, until now. He just knew it hurt, but now it feels like an open, incurable wound.

He gets into his car and turns it on, looking at Caroline in the passenger seat.

"You ready to go?" He asks her.

Caroline nods, giving a pleasantly wry smile, "Let's bring her home."

"That's the problem. She is… home."


	5. I Can Be the Answer

_1994_

It was a rupture in his thinking. Riding through the empty, lifeless streets of Mystic Falls and there being no activity. Bright, blue skies combing over the sun while Damon's brow rose effortlessly at the deserted picture of his home. His lips wrinkled inward as he moved his gaze to Bonnie, sitting with her feet up on the dash and reading some old book she told him was collecting dust. The wind rushed past her and the strands beside her face flew up every few moments.

It was almost four months, and he'd asked her to ride with him.

"Where?" She asked. Damon had searched her voice for the slightest indication of acrimony.

"Just around," He replied, casually, but assuming she'd say no. But, she didn't. She reached for her book off the kitchen table and moved past him. At first, he wondered where she was going and why she didn't give him an answer. If she was anything, the girl was talkative, and especially when she's trying to get a rise out of him. But, he thought about it and knew just exactly what the answer was.

When he stepped out onto the porch, lit vaguely by the scorching sun, his lips curled into a smile in the shadows. There she was sitting in the car, waiting for him.

_Present_

Driving in his Camaro, Damon remembered his car rides with Bonnie. He remembered how there were these rare, sensuous moments where silence is consumptive, but only in the uplifting and primed sentiments, and he longed for it. Especially sitting opposite of Caroline Forbes, one who never stops talking.

"Hey, Caroline, do you ever shut up?" He asked her, and her mouth hung open a minute while delivering a sharp stare, then she sighed and looked out the window.

It's not that Bonnie didn't talk. She did, mostly, but he loved moments where he could sit in the company of her and feel comfortable enough to engage in his own activity. I think he loved it so much because it was with Bonnie, a girl who he supposedly couldn't stand, and that sent a burst of elation throughout his body.

Damon and Caroline walk into the wondrous Whitmore Library. Damon clasps his hands together, analyzing the huge library. Tall, burgundy colored ceilings with built-in depression-inducing lights. _If brooding was a color, it'd be that light_, he thought as he glanced at it. His eyes dropped to the first floor of the not-so-quiet study hall where students mingled and talked with each other at the many brown tables organized on the blue and burgundy patterned carpet. He followed Caroline, walking in between the tables and towards the information desk.

Damon slammed a ton of books on the table in front of Caroline, even on top of the book she was reading.

"What is this?" She asked, staring at the books in astonishment. She stands up and starts sifting through the books.

"More books!" Damon responded enthusiastically, then sucks on his bottom lip. "We're going to get in there."

"Damon, we've tried to—"

"I don't care. If you really want to help me, if you really want to go home, then help me. No more doubt, alright?"

"Okay…"

A student walks up behind Damon with more books and he steps out of the way. She drops the books onto the table and Caroline shakes her head, glancing at the girl like she had disrespected her.

"Here you are, Professor Salvatore," The girl with the golden complexion says, "All the books under Supernatural, sub witches, travelers, and spells."

Caroline looks at Damon with crude suspicion and Damon smiled at her scrutinizing looks, then turns his gaze back to the girl. "Thanks," He said, looking deeply in her eyes, "You can go now."

The girl walks away and Caroline throws Damon a disapproving look. "Compelling a girl to do all your work? Neat."

"I had to make a call, so I asked the next prettiest girl that caught my eye… Don't shoot me those looks like I asked her to let me bite her. There's only one girl I want to _bite_."

That call he had to make was to Bonnie. He pulled his phone out and dialed her number, a little surprised it was saved in his phone. He shouldn't be though, she was the one to call when something went wrong, which sharply separates itself from this small gesture. He had called her once before, when he thought she was dead, because there was a bruise left in his body when she'd sent him back. And he just wanted to hear her voice, hoping for the bubbly, blunt one that revealed itself all too much in 1994. At the time, the last time he'd heard her she was in a desperate, pleading state, and her voice forced from her mouth through tears and he wanted to erase that so badly.

Damon chuckled, freeing a sigh at the sound of her delicate and soft _hello_, and he replied "Hey Bonnie." He stared down at his dark boots, scraping them against the floor in the library atrium.

"Hey," He could see Bonnie's incandescent smile as she said this and he didn't know what to say. He just knew her voice was like a light, and he wanted to follow it, and he wanted to tell her of its luminous quality, but something held him back. Was it the silence that quickly arrived after they greeted each other or was it something else? Something else that would not only suggest a cheesiness, and a laugh from her end, but suggest something _else_? He couldn't even bring himself to say it in his mind.

As he began to ask her about how she was, he heard someone else on other end shouting. And just like that, she hung up.

_Kai_, Damon thought, _the actual spawn of Satan_.

He sat across from Caroline and picked up a book. He was going to get inside of Mystic Falls to get to Bonnie, especially if she's making company with a psychotic fiend as devious as Kai.

Bonnie pressed her ear against the plywood door, hearing a familiar set of voices likely in a disagreement. A couple looked on suspiciously as Bonnie glanced behind her. She turned her gaze to the doorknob and turned it. The door creaked soundly open. She steps inside, her lips parting instantly. Kai and Sarah stood opposite each other in this study as if battle lines have been drawn. She took a look at Bonnie then walked up to the desk in the middle of the room, picked up a book, and launched it at Kai. He put his arms and leg up to protect himself, while glaring at her offensively.

"Hey!" Kai screams at her, "Do not throw books, bitch!"

Sarah gasped. Incredulously, her brow raised as she stepped around the desk, tracing her finger along the dust-filled top.

"Do you know what a bitch is?" She asked, stopping in front of the desk and waiting patiently for an answer. Kai's head shifts to the window and Bonnie's eyes narrowed.

_He can try that if he wants to,_ she thought as she watched him carefully. She wasn't letting him go anywhere. Not until they figured out what was keeping him bound here, or… even scarily, bound to her. Sarah didn't have the smallest hint of letting up, and it was easy for her to be so adamant. She wore it so well, like a dress hugging her in elegance, because it was made for her. It was made for her vulpine face and cunning grin. The same grin Bonnie noticed cross her face as Kai opened his mouth to speak.

"A bitch is a female dog. Now do I look like a dog to you?" Sarah questioned. It was like she was manipulating him, and just as he would with Bonnie, the bones in his body feel like they're shaking. They're burning and he exhales, letting the breath leave him slowly. Bonnie noticed his temper rising and she takes a step just as his eyes move from the floor to hers.

"Or am I weak?" Sarah continues, but Kai's gaze is on Bonnie. She's not glaring. She's not gawking, but she is looking at him. Not in aggression or a burning sensation, and if it is a burning one it is only with good intention. As his breathing calms and he hears the rapidness go steady, he's confused. Looking away, he is confused.

His eyes moved back to Sarah, and he reverts into a calm, yet villainous demeanor. Bonnie continues to watch him. She doesn't want to think about it, but did she just help lower his temper? Her eyes cut to the pastel painting of some guy on the wall, and she wonders if that was true. Kai makes her livid, yet is his source of tranquility. Her body feels hot. She steps in front of Sarah, almost unable to control her movements.

"Or am I a bitch because I tossed you across the room—" Sarah continues to babble, but Bonnie cuts her off:

"You have a look of murder in your eyes," Bonnie says, her arm up to guard Kai, though he was considerably far behind her. If Sarah wanted, she could move pass Bonnie and attack him. That's if Bonnie let her. Would she?

"Keen eye for such a troubled girl," Sarah stated, her mouth forming into a frown. She was mocking Bonnie. "HEY!" Sarah screamed, pointing past Bonnie to Kai. Bonnie turns around and sees Kai jumping through the glass window and onto the roof. She and Sarah run to the window and watch Kai roll off the roof, onto the ground.

They exchange agitated looks, and Bonnie storms off to the door. Sarah follows closely behind her.

"Look what you did. We had him!" Sarah said, marching behind Bonnie.

Bonnie turns around, stopping Sarah in her place. "Who are you? And why are fucking Matt while with Jeremy?"

Bonnie knew the girl was full of secrets. And it wasn't difficult to decipher the one of her and Matt. The lovelorn glances, as if the both of them have been searching and searching through miles of destitution for someone. The conversations they'd have with each other, without opening their mouths, like they existed in a world built by the both of them. And only them. The emotional attraction kept hidden in their eyes. It was obvious. Jeremy had to be stupid to not see it, because it was so obvious. Or maybe Bonnie just has firsthand experience with a relationship like this. Though, Bonnie has reason. What were Sarah and Matt's excuse for not being together?

Sarah's look devolved into embarrassment. Her arms swung behind her back and her head dropped, just as Matt walked up to save her.

"She's Damon's niece," Matt told Bonnie and at the slightest mention of him, she feels a surge of happiness through her body. She forgets about Kai, or the fact that Damon has other family, and she remembers her small stint with him in 1994. The vacation.

"I came here to find out more about my family," Sarah continues, her hands interlocking with Matt's. And there Bonnie was again, thinking of Damon and how close to subconscious it was when they interlocked fingers before the other side imploded. She just needed to see him.

Bonnie watched as Matt and Sarah retracted hands, looking past her. Bonnie turned around and saw Jeremy. A placid expression, that seemed to never leave his face, wore itself there now. He did blink, that familiar slow and dejected one, and started off down the stairs.

Matt raced past Bonnie, as did Sarah, to probably explain it to him. Explain what?

_We love who we love, right?_ Bonnie thought. Or maybe her saying that was just an excuse to hide the fact that she just stood there. It wasn't like her to stand there. Bonnie never picked and chose who she wanted to sympathize with, because it was engraved in her nature. Almost like an epigraph on a headstone.

She took a deep breath to fight back tears. Too many things were hitting her right now. Kai's on the loose, she's changing and feeling like she's losing a familiar part of herself. She knew this would happen, right when she returned back from 1994, that she wouldn't be the same person. It always felt… _right_. But a completely different person? This was not what she pictured.

And then there's the man named Damon, who Bonnie decidedly put her trust in and now that trust was beginning to cement.

A tear rolled down her cheek and onto her lip. Her eyes shut tight. Kai's probably gone now, somewhere in Mystic Falls hurting someone.

_Suck it up, Bonnie_, she tells herself.

Bonnie closed her eyes in the dark living room. She opened them, and candles lit up her soft skin. Matt smiled, looking at Sarah. And she was in shock, sitting in between the two on Matt's sofa.

"That… was way sick than anything I've ever seen," Sarah says, her eyes wide in amazement. "And I've seen some sick shit, so."

They dropped Jeremy off at the Salvatore mansion after an awkward ride home. It wasn't awkward for Bonnie though. For Matt, Sarah, and Jeremy it was. They'd just stopped arguing outside the Fell estate, and in the end, Jeremy was alone. Bonnie stared out the window and into the limitless space in capacity of a trillion stars, and an image of Damon's content smile appeared in her mind. He thrusts his arm into the air, holding his bourbon, and it stops in the middle of a full moon in the sky. A night in 1994 she'll likely never forget. A night this ride home let her reminisce.

Later, Bonnie opened the window in Matt's house. The blue fabric flying up, letting the moon illuminate the living room. She turned around and sees him in the kitchen, staring blankly at a piece of paper in the lowly lit room.

As the breeze cooled the room, Bonnie sat on the sofa and let a deep breath out through her nose. She looked on the glass table in front of her and saw some photos of several people. She looks back, seeing Sarah hovering over Matt with a mug in her hand, and Bonnie sifts through the photographs.

They were photos of people hanging around in the country. Then, Bonnie saw one of Caroline and her mom having a picnic. Bonnie's eyes went wide. She saw another with Enzo. Elena, Stefan, and Damon. Bonnie looked back again and saw Sarah walking up with another mug. She turned back around and dropped the photos quickly, pretending she didn't see what she saw.

Sarah handed a mug of hot chocolate to Bonnie and she took it politely, offering a smile. Sarah took a swig of hers and sighed, resting the mug between her thighs.

"So, you died?" Sarah asked Bonnie. It shouldn't have, because it feels as if everyone knows, but the question caught Bonnie off guard.

"Yeah…" The words passed through her lips like a whisper. Her eyes were unmoved from the photos on the table. Sarah thought Bonnie was just out of it, but Bonnie wasn't. Bonnie wanted to know what was up with the photos.

"It must suck to be Jeremy," Sarah mentions, "Rejected by his ex, betrayed by his girl, and backstabbed by his friend. All in one day."

"Does Damon know who you are?" The question burst through Bonnie's mouth like an igniting flame, quick with a spark. Sarah sucked in a breath.

"No," She replied.

"Stefan?" Bonnie's eyes narrowed as the question left her mouth.

"No. I'm still thinking of the right time to meet them." Bonnie nods. "My mother was apparently killed during labor and my dad… well, Matt told me what happen."

"How long ago was this?"

"I was born in 1994." Sarah turns to face Bonnie, whose bottom lip drops from her top. The one thing that brought Damon so much guilt, and pain, and regret— is a walking, talking reflection of it. Gale's daughter.

Bonnie's jaw sucked in as she thought about telling Sarah who her mother was. Or, how she died. Bonnie's eyes swiftly moved back to Sarah, and that cunning foxlike look, devious if anything, was gone. There, Bonnie noticed a girl who looked lost and alone. She looked vulnerable and not in the least bit confident, but was it true? Was it honest, or was this girl just a trickster? Bonnie couldn't answer that, but she did know the girl looked genuine.

Bonnie kept thinking about it. She had photos of Stefan and Damon, or Matt did, but Bonnie figured maybe she knows more than she is letting on.

Bonnie heard a beep and Sarah pulled out her phone.

"Matt…" Sarah announced, staring at her phone and standing up. "It's time."

Matt walked into the living room, stuffing his hands into his pocket and looking at Bonnie with those moody blue eyes. Bonnie stood just as she saw him downcast.

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked. She hoped it'd be about the photos, because sooner or later she was just going to ask him what his plans were. Matt's eyes shot up to Bonnie, then past her to Sarah.

"Well, Matt," Sarah said, "Are you going to tell her?" Matt sighed. "You need to tell her, or I will."

"Alright, Sarah," Matt replied. He huffs, "Look," He walks over to the glass table and picks up the photos. He hands them to Bonnie and she keeps her stare locked on him while she shuffled them in her hands. She already seen them, but she pretended like she hadn't.

Matt explains, "Those are the vampires that have been lurking around the border."

Bonnie whips around to Sarah asking, "So, you know Damon and Stefan are vampires?"

Sarah nods. "I'm not going to kill them… yet." Bonnie turns back around to Matt, perplexed. Sarah chuckles, "I'm kidding."

Bonnie rolls her eyes. "I'm not going to believe anything you say, from now on," Bonnie tells her, still facing Matt.

"Well, actions do speak louder than words, right?" Sarah responds.

_What the fuck is that supposed to mean_? Bonnie thinks. She sighs.

"Matt, there's more to the story," Sarah said, pushing Matt to go on.

"We're keeping Mystic Falls safe—"

Bonnie cuts Matt off, saying "By killing vampires outside of the border? And your friends?"

"They are not my friends, anymore!" Matt yells, his finger pointing towards the ground.

Bonnie shook her head and sat back down on the sofa. There was no way to relieve Matt of this. He planted a seed inside himself, a seed that's developing into a deep hatred of vampires. From what Bonnie understands, he's turning into Tripp. No surprise that he's been promoted to leader of the community protection group.

Sarah steps in between the two. "Okay, cool it with the emotions guys. It's not that serious."

"It's not that serious?" Bonnie replies, "Those are our friends!"

"Look, we're not going to kill your friends. Okay, Bonnie?" Sarah says. "But, Matt we just got an alert on a vampire. Lurking around the border."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Matt said.

Bonnie went along with them to prevent Matt from doing something stupid. Sarah too, who only proved to be unpredictable. Matt also agreed to help Bonnie locate Kai, if she came along to see what they were all about.

Bonnie stood over Matt, breathless, as she watched him stake a vampire nine times in the heart. And once, in their neck. "Go for the jugular," Matt would say, "They'd go for ours." Bonnie's flashlight shined on the vampire's split chest, which looked like an animal had torn it open, only to extricate the heart. Bonnie turned her head. It was hard to stomach. Even more so than Matt's ravenous killing of the vampire.

There were two more people with them. Bonnie flashed her light on Greg, who had a tight grin across his face. Then to Leech and the blood droplets spotted on his face. Sarah was checking her phone, probably getting more alerts. When she moved the light to Matt, she became afraid. The look in Matt's face was scarily surprising. His mouth hung open in satisfaction and his brow was furrowed in greed. Another realization for Bonnie that change was imminent not only in her, but for those around her also.

Matt stood up and fixed his gaze on Bonnie, steadying his breath and licking his bottom lip. Bonnie's flashlight moved to his hands, wrapped tightly around the stake covered in blood. He put it in his back pocket and walked towards Bonnie.

"Let's keep going," Matt said, leading the group. Bonnie blinks her shocked eyes as Sarah and the others followed Matt, brushing past her. She suddenly found herself not wanting to go, but she took a step.

Catching up with Matt, she says, "This is what you do?"

"I protect my town. Just like you used to, Bonnie."

"The town is already protected with this stupid magic border!"

"It's not with Kai running around in there, is it? Why don't you go find him if you don't want to be here."

"Matt, I'm here because you asked me to come." It was dark, so it wasn't easy to see what Matt's expression was. Bonnie imagined he was swallowing Bonnie's words with necessity. He didn't want to hear it, but it was necessary for him. "And I'm not…" Bonnie's voice lowered, to almost a whisper, "I'm not going to leave you here with them."

All Matt and Bonnie heard in the darkness was the footsteps of the others crunching the fallen leaves on the freezing ground. Matt's arms thrust up to her, then back down. He nervously reached for his cheek, then walked away.

Bonnie didn't see this, but saw as he marched away. She looked up, then started following him.

"Northeast border of Mystic Falls…" Sarah announced to the group. They'd met up with three more people of the community group who didn't seem as sadistic as the others have so far. They balanced the group out, though bringing an arsenal of weapons against vampires, handing them out to the others.

Sarah continued reading from her phone, "…two vampires are located doing suspicious activities. Trying to breach the border." She looks up at the rest of the group and smiles. "Keep a look out, guys. We might meet up with them before we get there."

As they continued trekking on the outside of the border, the group prepared themselves for the vampires. They readied their guns, sharpened their stakes, and strapped plenty of vervain grenades along their waist belt.

Bonnie feels an arm brush alongside hers and she looks over to see Matt, looking tall and uneasy. Her eyes creased at the sight as Matt hands her a stake. Bonnie looks down and the corner of her mouth curls a smile.

"Matt, I'm a witch. I don't need that," Bonnie said.

"I know," Matt said, dropping his head and putting the stake away, "I just want you to know I consider you a part of this… That's why I asked you to come. You're the balance Bonnie. Between good and evil… whether you want to see it that way or not. And, honestly, that's what I want us to be." Matt's eyes looked around at his companions. "Do you think what I'm doing is bad?"

"Maybe the way you're going about it, so black and white... I do think you're in a bad place. Like me." Bonnie smiles, her green eyes calm, and it rubs onto Matt, the corners of his mouth stretching in the tiniest movement.

"Bonnie?" Bonnie looks up, just as she heard the other community protection members point their guns up, "_Matt?_"

It was Damon. He was standing in front of Caroline, feet spread shoulder to shoulder, with books laying around and about. Bonnie's gasped through a smile and locked eyes with the Damon. He was suave as his eyes averted down in a split second, then back up to her majestic eyes, intriguing in every movement.

"Bonnie!" Caroline squeals, and Bonnie breaks her lock with Damon. Caroline starts to run towards her but Sarah steps up, pointing a gun at Caroline.

"Not another step. Caroline, is it?" Sarah questions. Matt leaves Bonnie's side, his eyes glaring in Caroline and Damon's direction. He stands next to Sarah, a crossbow at his side.

"How do you know me?" Caroline asks and she shifts her gaze to Bonnie, wondering just what the hell she was doing.

"Matt's told me quite a bit, especially about the time you almost killed him…" Sarah replied. Caroline glared eyes at Matt, feeling betrayed as she pressed her lips together.

"Matt? What're you doing?" Caroline asked him.

Matt didn't look her in the eyes. He stared at the green blades inches from the ground and replied, "Shut up, Caroline." Caroline speaks again but Matt cuts her off, this time with his eyes lifted from the ground and aimed through the crossbow's scope: "Shut UP!"

Bonnie stormed forward, "They're my friends! So, you let them go." She stops in between the two groups. Damon stares violently at Matt and Sarah. Caroline presents mellowed eyes to Matt, hoping to breach his cold and livid exterior. The wind whistles and Bonnie speaks again, "Matt. This is not keeping the balance."

Bonnie's words were heard, but Matt still burned his gaze into Caroline's face. Then, he turned to look at Sarah and let out a sigh. "We have to leave them alone."

"No!" Sarah said frustrated.

"Please, Sarah," Matt pleaded. He cut his eyes to Caroline and his face twisted into rage. "But not for them. For Bonnie."

"Fine. Five minutes or we're coming back to get them," Sarah whipped around and started walking away. She then stopped, turning back around. "We got to stop meeting like this, Damon." She smirked and turned around, leading the group away.

Matt touches Bonnie on her forearm, "I'll call you," He said before catching up with his team.

Damon started to chase them when Bonnie stopped him.

"You'll regret it. Trust me," She tells him. Damon moved his eyes to hers and he nods, his mouth agape.

"You okay?" He asks.

"Yeah." It was nice. To see him. She hesitated, but lifted her head up to the night sky. The dark violet blanket covering the sky, with stars brightening it up from corner to corner. Damon doesn't move at first. He just loved her reaction to it all. The night sky was beautiful, and it was never the same, never dull in its moments. It's what most people didn't know about Bonnie that he did… she was like the night sky. She was beautiful. And she was never dull in her moments.

His head finally raised and his eyes connected to the night sky also. Damon's arms felt wobbly, like jello, and his fingers inched towards Bonnie's. He wrapped a finger around hers and she smiles, just as an image pops in her head of a black crow and a purple butterfly, flying through a cemetery. It happened only for a second, and Bonnie trembled back, gasping.

"What?" Damon asked. Bonnie didn't even know. It didn't feel dangerous or frightening though.

They hear a deep breath leaving Caroline. Then another. She collapses to the ground and covers her face. Bonnie runs over to her, rubbing her back, rolling her lips back as she heard Caroline's sobs.

"Bonnie…" Caroline tries to talk through tears, her voice breaking, "If you weren't there, he would have killed me."

Bonnie turned around to look at Damon. She wanted to disagree with her, but she couldn't. Bonnie saw a different Matt on this night. The look in his eyes… there would have been no remorse. No matter who he staked.

"That girl," Damon asks, crouching next to Bonnie, "Who is she? Master manipulator?"

"That's Sarah," Bonnie replied, contemplating if she should tell Damon about her or not. The truth. It was hard not to. He had a way of forcing it out of her, with just a look, or a smirk, or some poetic statement he'd randomly formed in his head.

"She's your relative, Damon," Bonnie reveals. At first, Damon is shocked. It's as if he knows something more, or had an odd feeling. Then his face shifted. He closes his mouth and shakes his head. No sign of shock on his face.

"That's ridiculous. You know that, right?"

Bonnie didn't say anything. She just looked at him, then back to Caroline. He dropped his gaze from her and stared at the ground. His eyes twitched to narrow, then he looked back up at her.

_She's right_, he thinks watching her soft eyes close as she consoles Caroline, _She's right_.


	6. Wait

**Thanks for reading guys, and thanks for the reviews! They're very helpful and I appreciate it! **

"I think I'm going to call it a night," Bonnie whispers, taking a look at Caroline as she walked up the steps to her dorm. Damon rounded the car, resting his hip against the side and staring at her. Every time, _every time_, his eyes lock to hers he finds himself in captivation. His nerves reach out into every part of his body and he can't look away.

She waited for him to reply or nod, but he just looked at her. She folded her arms and looked down nervously, pressing her butt against the car door.

Damon lets out a throaty hum, signifying that he at least heard her. Bonnie looks up at the cryptic smile upon his enigmatic face. One of these days she'll be able to decode why his stare pulls her in like a magnet, but until then she can enjoy the mystifying gaze that evokes her nerves.

He digs into his back pocket and pulls out a note. Before handing it to her, he looks at it and his thin lips move across his face. He nods, taking a couple steps towards her before raising his deep blue eyes to hers.

The note slid between Bonnie's thumb and index finger, and for a moment the both of them held it at the same time.

"I wrote it for you. Elena told me you were leaving, and I got this feeling…" That last word left Damon's mouth like an echo in a dark cave, at least that's what it sounded like in his mind, as he's drawn in by her provoking gaze.

Bonnie waited. His lips were parted, a thoughtful look in his creasing brow. She figured maybe he had more to say. Damon cleared his throat after a pause and released his fingers from the note. Bonnie's eyes dropped to the note.

She was taken by surprise. Damon wrote her a note, and as she palmed it in her fist she wondered what it would say.

"Now, Bonnie," Damon started, "Don't be a stranger. Even if you do leave, don't forget about us."

Damon walks back to the driver's side just as Bonnie replies, "I won't." She purses her lips after that and his eyes avert to the roof of the car, the littlest movement at the corner of his mouth. His eyes shot up one last time to her before opening the car door and getting inside.

Bonnie found herself staring at the exact spot he was fixated on until the engine revving broke her out of that zone. Her toes press back to step away as Damon pulls off, and Bonnie watches the car speed off. She didn't think to look away until his car was out of her view, and even then she still stood there admiring the dense fog draped lightly over the road, and blinking softly as the smoke from his car meshed with the fog of the night.

She turned towards the dorm and felt the note in her palm. A smile began to grow from cheek to cheek as the little voice in her head led her to believe that this note would be the highlight to her night. It was a horrible day, and in the midst of all this chaos and pain, here is something that could make moving through the day worth it.

Bonnie walks into her dorm, freezing at the sight of Caroline and Elena sitting on Caroline's bed. The two were on opposite ends of the bed. Their faces were empty; especially Caroline's, whose eyes scattered the room in search of an answer. Elena's eyes, Bonnie thought, were filled more with pity than sympathy. Though, when Bonnie entered, and Caroline and Elena shifted their heads to her, Elena's brows furrowed into a helplessness.

Caroline's eyes were swollen, and she had a disheartened look on her face. Bonnie's shoulders relaxed seeing them together. It reminded her of a simpler time. She blinked the tears and the memories away and strutted to her friends. She missed them. This replayed in her mind several times, like a broken record, and Bonnie didn't even realize when she was jogging towards them.

Caroline couldn't hold it anymore. She exhaled, beginning to cry again, and she looked at both Bonnie and Elena. Bonnie's breaths became labored as Caroline's shoulders started to shake and her blonde curls dropped over her head as she bent over.

Bonnie forced herself into the bed next to Caroline and rubbed her back to console her, then, as she looked at Elena flashing her a kind smile, she grips onto Caroline's arm and rubs it. Caroline continues to cry and Bonnie reaches a hand to Elena. Bonnie may have wanted things to end between her and Elena, but maybe it was only temporary.

Elena grabs her hand and after her eyes ease in Bonnie's gaze, she rests her head down on the right side of the bed. Bonnie leans her head back. She's not ready to jump back into things with Elena, but being with her now and with Caroline. With everything that's happening with Matt… She can see them being good in the future. It wasn't going to be an easy thing to fix but… it was worth it to try. Bonnie had hope that maybe, while sucking in a breath, shutting her eyelids, she had hope that maybe it was worth a try.

The three of them stayed in each other's grasp. Elena and Bonnie laid with Caroline until she stopped sobbing. It was quiet when she stopped. Bonnie knew, comforting her that Caroline may have still been crying. Elena tightened her grasp of Bonnie's hand and Caroline rose. She sighed, still looking lost. Empty. Bonnie's mouth curled into a frown as she met Caroline's look.

"You okay?" Bonnie asked. Caroline didn't say anything at first. She stared at Bonnie, then cut her eyes to the door as her lips parted.

"I will be," Caroline replied. She scooted back and snuggled up close to Bonnie, sniffling, then resting her head on Bonnie's shoulders.

It was almost three am. Bonnie had just gotten into her bed while Caroline and Elena fell asleep in theirs.

She was so tired, unfolding the note Damon had gotten her. She turned her lamp on, the light reflecting off of her astonished emerald eyes. Her mouth opens wide in shock. There were scribbles and erase marks beginning this, written in cursive manner, letter that begins with _Dear Bonnie_.

Bonnie bit the inside of her jaw lightly and peered up at Caroline and Elena, who were sound sleep. She looks back down at the note and starts reading:

_I don't really know what to say. And, I don't know why I'm writing this. I just am. I've attempted many different forms of communication, but I can't reach you. A written note would do the trick. I hope. I'm in a library. Surrounded by frat boys in a last minute attempt to study. Do you know how pathetic that is? I never got college. Just another way to be chained to something. Bound, but in the most unnatural ways. I'm talking too much. Are you dodging me, Bennett? Yes, goodbyes are awkward and upsetting and sometimes one of the most difficult things to do in life. But you know that, don't you, Bonnie? I do however think it necessary, especially when two people are friends, and they care so much to bicker with each other, and would move mountains and build bridges for one another. It's very necessary, but I don't think you wouldn't have told me. It's just difficult to know you want to leave, when you just got back. We just got you back. I guess I thought I could do some impressionable convincing. But this letter fell flat. If you didn't get my voicemail, to sum it simply, I miss you. And I'd like you to stay here fighting the good fight with me. You make me feel good about myself, and I'd like to try to do the same for you. If you stayed, Bon. But, honestly, you don't deserve to be denied honest things. I mean it. So, if you want to leave, I'll respect that. You are bigger than all of this, Bonnie. I think you always were. Just know, we'll always have these…_

Bonnie looked down further to see a picture Damon drew of vampire pancakes. She shook her head, blinking away her emotions, saying: "I hate those," She laughs to try and stop herself from tearing up.

The letter ends with: _See you later, Bonnie. _

Bonnie's eyes fill with water. Her mouth opens to speak, but she just whimpers. She covers her mouth with her hand, glancing at her friends as they let the night take them.

It wouldn't take Bonnie. It wasn't possible. She removes the covers from over her and walks into the foggy light shining through the window. Her eyes squint as her face enters the light, then she relaxes when a thought enters her mind. And her green eyes become more luminous, more wide and certain on each step she takes towards the window.

She looks down at the note in her hand, then back up through the window. She imagines herself with Damon on tonight and the thoughtful look dissipated from her face. Bonnie didn't want the night to take her. She wasn't ready to fall asleep. She wanted to change the night. And she wanted to do it with Damon.

She stepped back and spun around, walking quickly to her bed. Tossing the note on her bed, she picked up her phone and looked through her contacts. She stopped at Damon's name and looked at the time. 11:46.

She just wanted to imagine that time was stopped. She dialed his number and remembered just how long the days were in 1994… with and without Damon. With him, the days were long, but they were never exhaustive. They weren't stunted and bleak and sluggish.

"Hello?" She says as the phone stopped ringing, and thinking of how passionate the letter was. How it helped her realize that she wasn't the only person that knew her faults. But Damon did too.

"Hello. Hey Bon, what's up?" Damon replied in a breathless tone. She smiled at his voice and she smiled at his kindness and his unexpected benevolence of now and then, and even, maybe even the future. The letter had a part in this and his unparalleled handwriting, but all the while these sudden feelings were taking control. She smiled so brightly that she thought he could see it through the phone. "Bonnie…?"

"Turn around," Bonnie blurted. She swallowed. She didn't understand this feeling… this feeling that forced her to… _feel_.

"Why?" Damon answered before taking a beat.

"I think…" Bonnie stopped. It was the first time in a long time she spoke before she thought, and she had to stop herself. What was she going to say? "I think we should look for Kai."

"I can't get into Mystic Falls, Bonnie. Caroline and I tried."

"Then, we'll search the outskirts of our town. And we'll find a way in. I promise."

"I'll be there."

"You left me a voicemail?" Bonnie asks, her feet propped up against the dashboard. Her face turned to Damon's with a half-smile. He flashes her a look, before focusing back on the road.

"I did," He said, taking another look at her face. His lips parted as he met her glistening eyes and he sucked in a breath. Driving with one hand, he gripped the steering wheel and trained his eyes back onto the road.

_She's doing that thing again, _he thinks._ That thing with her eyes_.

Damon continues, "It's probably lost among all of Jeremy's. He told me he left you a lot."

Bonnie turned her gaze towards window, her fingers intertwining on her stomach. "He did?"

Damon nods. "Yeah. He also told me that you hated me?" Damon lets a breath out and looks on incredulously at the empty road ahead. "Is this true?"

Bonnie shakes her head. "No," She says under her breath, feeling nervous. Damon takes a glance at her. He could tell she had more to say.

"Bonnie—" He started to speak. He wanted to help her. He knew how hard this was for her. Everything felt natural and uncomfortable at the same time, and he knew how to deal with it. A little. Though, did she?

"I wouldn't be here," Bonnie cuts him off. She shifts her whole body to face him and repeats, drawing it out, "I wouldn't be here. Damon, I wouldn't be here in this car with you if I hated you."

And there she goes again. Stopping herself to recollect her thoughts to form a comprehensive and conscientious thought to speak from. Damon shakes his head and the car begins to slow.

Bonnie sighs and a straining look crosses over her face. Damon pulls the car to the side of the road and parks it. He turns to face her, making sure to give her all the attention in the world, because he believed she deserved it. She deserves the attention that every person wants at one point in their life, and Damon believes that this is her time.

"What is it?" He asks in a deserving tone. His eyes search her gentle face, oddly filled with tension.

"I just feel like… I'm not normal anymore," Her voice begins to break and her cheeks flush red as her vulnerability takes hold of her. She turns to face forward.

"Bonnie." Damon says.

"I know I'm a witch and that will never constitute as normal. But… there was a time where I felt that. When I was anchor I was some kind of human! I was some kind of normal and I just want that again."

She turns to look at Damon, who is now facing forward himself. Bonnie noticed his brow furrowed and his mouth agape and he was in a daze of profound thought.

"Maybe," He began to say, "Maybe normal isn't completely and humanly black and white… maybe it's the knowledge that normal is…" Damon turns to face Bonnie, getting unknowingly and intimately close to her, the center console the only thing separating them. "…subjective. It's our faith. It's what we believe to be."

Bonnie eyes looked down at his lips, and for an instant, she felt her body inch closer to him. The product of some euphoric effect entering her body.

"You want to know what my normal is?" Damon asks.

Barely a mumble, Bonnie responds, "Yeah."

"My normal," Damon begins, not removing his eyes from hers, "is being who I am and surrounding myself with people that garner that in me."

He looks down at her lips, then his fingers raise to her temple. Bonnie turns her head towards his hand and looks down. His finger traces down her face as she faces him again, and he holds onto her chin with his thumb and index finger.

Damon could hear her heart want to beat out of her chest and that made him smile big. She smiles too, seeing his. His fingers let go of her chin and he leans back against the door.

He stares at her. A wry smile on his face as his tongue grazes his lips. Bonnie chuckles and sits back to. Suddenly, for the both of them, the atmosphere was relaxed.

As the night went on, Bonnie and Damon forgot the reason they were out here. They were laughing, shoulders bouncing, and just enjoying this time with each other. And Bonnie did what she wanted. She sat in the moonlit Camaro, cheesing, listening to Damon's lame attempt at an impromptu story, and she thought about the night. It didn't have her, but it was the reverse. She gained control and she did with Damon.

Their laughter died down and Bonnie checks her phone.

"One 'o clock in the morning!" Bonnie exclaimed. Her wide eyes averted to Damon. "Okay, what were we supposed to be doing?" She starts laughing again and hangs her head down. Damon's eyes crinkled as he watched her, filled with laughter and exuberance. Youth. It was a moment he'd seen several times and a moment he'd never forget. She looked back up at him, covering her mouth, trying to stop herself from laughing.

His lips begin to part, but his teeth stayed clenched, and the corners of his mouth grew at the joy she was bringing herself. And also, the joy she was bringing him.

"Oh!" Bonnie remembers. "Fucking Kai!" She said through clenched teeth. "We got to find him. There's something mysterious going on between him and me. We got to find him."

Damon's head jerks back in disbelief. "Alright. You're not sleepy?"

"No, but are we here?" Bonnie begins to look outside of her window.

"Yeah, but I want to show you something first."

Damon put his leather jacket around Bonnie as they walked through the dark woods. Bonnie shrugged it off.

"Seriously?" Damon said to her.

"Did I ask for your jacket?" Bonnie asks, stepping over an uprooted tree root.

"Well, you're shivering. So, I thought—"

"I'm not shivering."

"Fine!" Damon replies and throws his jacket back on. She throws him a look and smiles.

"That was nice of you, though."

"I know."

The both of them stop as they hear something. Damon whips around, but doesn't see anything.

"You heard that, right?" Damon asks, looking around at the area that they've walked already. Bonnie nods, taking a step forward. Her nose flares as she prepares herself for a surprise attack.

"Yeah," Bonnie replies. The wind brushes past them leaving a cold chill, and Damon's head moves to the side.

"Do you think it's that girl? They still out here?" Damon asks. _That girl_, Damon thought as his eyes glanced at a tree.

"You mean your relative?" Bonnie questions. She turns around and looks at Damon. A calmness was expressed on her face as she stared at the back of his head.

Damon refrained from meeting her look. He just faced forward, thinking he saw something. His eyes creased as he took a step forward, focusing his eyes on the distance.

When Bonnie told him about Sarah, he wanted to find Stefan and ask him about their relative.

Bonnie itches the top of her brow and says, "She's your niece, Damon."

Immediately, his face in constraint, Damon replies, "But how?"

As if Bonnie anticipated this answer, she quickly retorted, "You know how."

Damon stood there in confusion. His head moved to the left slowly, and it rocked a little in Bonnie's view, then it moved to the right. Bonnie jogged up to him, placing her hand on his shoulder and standing next to him.

"I don't think anyone's out here," Bonnie tells him with a smile. "It was probably just the wind."

"Yeah," Damon agrees, turning to face her.

"What was it you wanted to show me?" Bonnie asked, attempting to deter the conversation from Sarah. For some reason, he wasn't ready to accept that yet. But Bonnie knew, and Damon did too, that he didn't have much time either.

"Come on," Damon urges Bonnie to follow him.


	7. Leave It Alone

Bonnie puts her hands under her arms as the wind picks up. She stood over Damon with a flashlight as he, with piles and piles of books in front of him, looked for the key to getting inside of Mystic Falls.

"Do you need any help?" Bonnie asked, cocking her head to the side and getting bored. She hadn't known what Damon wanted to show her, but she did hope it would be something more gratifying than this. "You're not missing much, you know?" Bonnie begins to explain, "The town's only more safe and secure from vampires and other supernatural baddies."

Damon stops what he's doing and looks up at the sky, his eyes slowly rolling to where Bonnie stands. "It's my home, Bonnie. And I want to go home!" His voice was playful, which sparked something virulent inside of Bonnie.

"A home you turned into a feeding ground for yourself." Damon stood. Bonnie's words stung as he turned to face her.

"Are you serious?" Damon asked, his voice low.

"I'm just saying. Maybe it's not such a good idea. And with those hunters…" Bonnie's voice trails off. Her eyes shift to the side of her. "Did you hear that?"

Damon stares at her, feeling himself fleeting. He blinks himself back into the real world and looks just over her head.

"I don't see anything. Let's just get back to this," He nods his head to the side. Bonnie meets his eyes, determined but dark. She looks past him to the books and flashes the light on them.

"Alright. Where were we?"

A half-smile grows on Damon's face when he turned around. He crouches back down and skims through the books again.

"I had a place where I found some traction…" Damon says to himself, barely audible to Bonnie who sighs slumping her shoulders.

Her brow begins to furrow. Damon throws his hands up as the light moves from the books. He's annoyed as he turns around and stands, seeing Bonnie looking into the dark, empty forest. His nose crinkles and he starts to speak when he hears the sound of leaves crunching.

"Now you hear that?" Bonnie says.

"Oh… yeah…" He replies. "You look over there."

Bonnie steps away, cautiously, using her flashlight to guide her. It moves along the still patches of green grass and Autumn leaves. Bonnie turns around to look at Damon, but with his all black attire it's hard for her to see where he is. He can handle himself anyway, she doesn't need to check up on him. Although, as she looks forward again she has the sudden urge to look back. Like a million nerves are moving through her body and it wouldn't stop unless she turned to face him.

She swallows. One last look. She sees his pale face amidst the darkness, a startling contrast. Though, a smile spreads on her face a little. And she turns back around, hearing only the sound of leaves meeting the bottom of her shoe.

"You finding anything?" Damon yells loud enough for her to hear.

"No. But there's something here… I can feel it." She stops walking. Her face turns slowly and she observes the environment around her. A look of confidence crossed her face as the wind whistled. She stood there for a moment then took a step to her left, and then another until she was running in that direction. She heard Damon calling her name but she kept running.

She gasps, her mouth wide open in shock. She closes it immediately as her eyes avert to a tree then back on the malevolent face of Kai. That tiny, aggravating smirk on his face sent a chill through Bonnie's bones. Laughter erupted from her face.

"Oh my god," She says to him through an insincere smile. She continues to laugh as Damon flashes to the side of her, holding onto her. He looks up and sees Kai waving at him with his skinny, little fingers.

"Damon, buddy!" Kai says. Damon groans, grinding his teeth and charging towards Kai. They flash away and Bonnie looks around to see where they went.

"Don't hurt him, Damon!" Bonnie yells and she starts sprinting to find them. She hears Damon's voice and runs towards it. Not too far away, Damon is pinning Kai up against the tree. Bonnie shakes her head as her tongue glides over her bottom lip. A breath leaves her mouth as she jogs towards them.

"Don't worry, Bon-Bon! I won't hurt him!" Damon speaks through his teeth as he glares at a smiling Kai. "You think this is funny? Let's see if this is."

"Damon…" Bonnie hums in a cautious voice. Kai croaks as Damon's fist lunges into his heart. He feels Damon's fingernails pierce his heart like needles. He chokes. Blood pulses up his throat and forces itself out of his mouth.

Bonnie bites her lip. She stares at the two, glaring, and hoping that Damon doesn't do anything stupid. Hasn't he learned anything from her?

She takes another step, then a panicked breath pushes from her mouth. She clutches her heart and her eyes shut do to the immense pressure coming from her chest. Blood spills from the open wound on her chest and she looks up at Kai. Their eyes meet and Bonnie's face constricts with anger. Kai's mouth drops through the pain, as he starts connecting the pieces to this puzzle.

Then, he starts chuckling, to Damon's dismay.

"You still think this is funny, huh?" Damon tells him and he pushes his fingers further into his heart.

"DAMON!" Bonnie pushes out of her mouth and then she passes out. Damon turns around, seeing the blood pumping from her heart and onto the cold, hard ground. Kai's unconscious body drops to ground with a thud as Damon raced to Bonnie, pulling her head into his arms.

"Bonnie…" Damon pleads. "No, no, no, no, no…" He repeats it, begging her to breathe again as he presses his wrist to his lips. His fangs elongate and sink into his skin, warm blood bursts through his wrists and he calmly presses it against Bonnie's lifeless lips.

"Come on, Bonnie…" He sits patiently awhile, feeding her his blood. And hoping he didn't kill her. A part of him knew Bonnie was strong and that she could get through this. And that his blood would find some part of her worth saving. He hoped that the universe, with this night spent with her, with someone he would overtly call his best friend, wouldn't take all of this away. Just because he wouldn't listen to her.

He slams his fist into the ground, his knuckles breaking at impact. "Damn it, why don't I just listen!"

He removes his wrist. Specks of blood was smeared around her lips. He cups her face in his hands and stares deeply at her, waiting for an eyelid to lift. He wanted so badly to shake her but he didn't want to hurt her any more than he already has. He couldn't bring himself to do it.

She opens her eyes and Damon's eyes grow wide in surprise. He presses her head against his chest and cradles her. His mouth was open in shock and slowly the shock turned to a smile. To a happiness, as he heard her mumble his name. He pulls her away from his chest and looks down at her dazed eyes. He analyzed her, looking at her like he'd saw his whole life ahead of him… and it looked so promising.

"Kai… We can't let him get away," Bonnie begins to sit up on her own, struggling.

"Hey, hey, hey," Damon says, bringing his thumb and finger to her chin, "He's not going anywhere."

When Damon touched her, she felt it again. That euphoric feeling, and as much as a part of her wanted to let it in, she pushed it out of her mind. Lifting her hand up, she pushed his hand away too. Damon swallowed and looked elsewhere.

"Do you remember what happen?" He asked her as she sat up. She nods.

"That's why he's been following me. He can't get away from me… we're connected."

Damon, upon hearing that, found it hard to internalize. Kai and Bonnie are linked. Like each other's life force. A tether for one another.

"Literally." He replies, a hint of disgust in his tone.


	8. Intramission

Holding him by his collar, Damon pushes Kai's unconscious body up against a tree. Kai awakes, gasping and feeling over his chest.

"I'm alive?" Kai asks Damon, in shock. His mouth held open as he looked at Damon, who glared back in revulsion. Wrinkles formed around Damon's thin lips as his eyes jumped to a patch of dead grass nearby.

"Yeah, Kai," Bonnie replies, mockery in her voice. She tilts her head and analyzes the face slightly hidden by Damon's shoulders. "But you want to know the real kicker?"

Bonnie offers him a big, insincere smile while walking over to a tree. Damon looks up at her as she stops in front of the tree and turns to look at the both of them. In an instant, she scrapes her forearm up against the tree and holds it up at Kai.

Kai's eyes jump to the side then back to her and his mouth opens a little. "Uh, what the hell—" Kai stops, feeling a sting his arm. He takes a deep breath and looks down at his arm, seeing a scar barely breaking skin yet bleeding. He watches the trail of blood wiggle its way down into his palm. His head jerks up at to see Bonnie's arm. She still holds it in the air, poised, as the blood forms a path down her arm to her elbow.

He meets her eyes and couldn't differentiate between the seething anger or subtle fear trying to take hold of him. As he feels himself bursting with rage, at any second, he sees an almost unnoticeable tremble in Bonnie's lips and then the crease in Damon's brow as he watched him like a hawk.

Taking a deep breath, Kai presses his hand onto the wound. Damon turns his head slightly as he hears the faint sounds of laughter under Kai's breath.

Bonnie's arm descends slowly as she sees his shoulders shake. Damon turns around to look at her.

"He thinks this is a game," Bonnie says with a chuckle, nodding ferociously as she holds up her hand at Kai. He grabs at his neck as he feels the airways ceasing to exist.

"Bonnie, stop!" Damon demands, spit spraying from his mouth. Bonnie coughs, feeling the constriction around her neck. "Bonnie!"

She stops trying to kill him as Damon runs to her.

"I have to remember that I'm connected to him," she says as she rubs her hands over her neck.

"Right. And I know you're pissed—" Damon starts, but Bonnie cuts him off while also staring at him with eyes resembling fear.

"Pissed? Damon, I want to strangle him with the roots of these trees," Bonnie stresses, feeling intense. She looks past Damon at Kai, who was still recovering from her attack.

Damon looks around, as if what she said was alarming, while saying "Can you actually do that?"

Bonnie's shakes her head as she creases her eyes at him.

"Look, just, I can't have you dying on me…" Damon could still see she was angry and he nervously removes a few strands of hair from her face, then hurrying his hands into his pockets. "You kept me from killing him. Find that resilience."

Bonnie nods, her eyes focused on Damon's, and she inhales.

"You two done playing with each other?" Kai interrupts them, picking himself up off the ground. "And hey, Damon don't you have a girlfriend? You sure spend a lot of time with that ticking time bomb."

Damon turns around. "Shut up."

Bonnie moves pass Damon and folds her arms, preparing herself to fill Kai in on the situation. She just needed him to know and cooperate. Now was not the time to be on separate sides of the fence, and she closes her eyes to suppress her ill emotions towards him, she hopes to come to some common ground with him.

Though, when she opens her mouth she discovers her tone more impatient than she thought it'd be.

"Here's the thing, Kai. We're linked," She starts, closing the gap between them.

"Like soulmates," He replies with a smile.

Bonnie hesitates, "No. Like some kind of spell." She waits for an answer from him, but he just stands there with a tight-lipped smile. Bonnie raises her brow at him and he shrugs.

"You think I have something to do with this?"

"Well?"

"Hold up, hold up, hold. Up." Kai takes a step towards her and holds out a finger towards, pointing at her as it lightly bounced in the air. "What makes you think, Bonnie Bennett, that I'd want to be linked to you?" He places his finger on his bottom lip, as if pondering a thought, and says: "I don't care about you."

Bonnie's jaw thrusts forward as Damon flashes in between them. He pushes Kai into the tree behind him.

"This is not a game, Kai. We're trying to figure something out here!" Damon growls.

"We? I think this is between the two fated beings prophesized to be together."

That flipped a switch in Damon, a switch he didn't even know he had. He didn't act on it, but he wanted to gouge Kai's eyes out and suck his blood dry.

"What're you talking about?" Damon asks. Kai makes eye contact with Bonnie and tilts his head up. Bonnie's eyes narrow in his gaze.

"Don't listen to him, Damon," Bonnie says.

"This isn't about you. It's between her and I…" Kai tells Damon.

Damon downcast his eyes. Kai had some truth to his nasty words. And it angered Damon that he agreed with him. He feels Bonnie's hand on his bicep and he looks over at her. She pulls him away from Kai and steps in front of him.

"Okay. Me and you. What's up?"

"You still wear brave like it's the best quality about you."

Bonnie bites the inside of her jaw.

"The great thing about this whole linked thing is that… you guys can't kill me. I mean, with you and your self-worth glowing. And Damon's weak promise to always protect you…" Kai rolls his eyes, and Damon glares at him from behind Bonnie. "You won't kill me. Because then you'll die. That means I get to do what I want. No repercussions."

Bonnie folds her arms in disgust. She clenched her teeth before replying: "We have options."

Kai smirks. "Hm. Like?"

"I can take a little bit of torture."

"Woah, Bon," Damon interjects. "Relax?"

"Look, don't you want to know why you're linked? That is what we need to work together to do." Bonnie continues to Kai.

Kai nods, agreeing with her. "Or I can have a little fun," Kai replies, nonchalant. "Who should I kill first? Matt? Or your beloved Elena?"

"Are you serious, Kai?" Bonnie asks, as the truth about this connection dawns on her. Damon too. Whatever Kai feels, Bonnie will too. There's no loophole around it. And if he's planning on hurting her friends. There's no way to stop him.

"Are you seriously asking me that?" Kai questions.

Bonnie walks away, feeling her breaths rapidly speeding up. Damon follows her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She turns around, licking her lips anxiously.

"Damon, we have to take him out," Bonnie says to him. She keeps her eyes trained on his, and he does the same.

"No," Damon disagrees, making sure Bonnie feels it from the tone of his voice to the look of deep concern in his eyes.

"He's threatening the people we care about!" Bonnie's voice start to rise, but she lowers it when she looks at Kai, who is trying his hardest to listen in.

Damon leans into her, his hands up pleading, hoping she'll hear him out. "I do not care. We can find a way."

Bonnie scoffs, her eyes scattering in their balls, looking for something inauthentic in his actions, his face, and his focused and controlled look.

"At whose expense?" Bonnie questions. Damon leans back, straightening his posture. He looks away into the distance, knowing she's waiting for an answer.

"I said no," He tells her in a low voice.

"You're forgetting something. I'm not someone you can direct orders to."

Bonnie studies his face for a moment as a current of perplexity washes over it. She looks away and walks pass him, but he grabs her arm to stop her. She pulls away, and palms his chest with her hand, knocking him back a bit. Her eyes thinned with anger.

"Hey!" He says, in almost a growl, his lips curled out revealing his teeth. There was a moment between them, a silence that quelled the tension between them. Damon closes his mouth as before he says: "You're right, but you're also someone who will listen. Who will listen to me."

Bonnie's fist balls up at her side and she shuts her eyes tight, taking a deep breath. "This is between Kai and I, Damon. Not you."

Damon's eyes grew wide and he pushed his top teeth into his bottom lip.

Bonnie watches how he waded solemnly in the night in front of her. How her words were the reason for the back and forth rock in his head, and warm feeling coursed through her bones as these next words left her mouth: "Let me handle this."

Quickly, Damon replies, "Why when I hear 'let me handle this' it sounds like 'let me throw my life on the line to save everyone else'?"

"I'm sorry, Damon."

"No!" Damon shouts, before getting forced into the air and feeling his entire body go numb as it hits a tree. He lays there, convulsing, and struggling to yell Bonnie's name. The only thing in his vision are the stars hidden between the leaves of the trees. Slowly, Damon's body regenerates its palpability and he stands. He flashes back to Kai and Bonnie, just as Kai passes out on the ground.

She turns around, wobbling, trying to maintain a balance. He stares at her, placing his hands on her shoulders. She blinks slowly. "What did you do?" He asks her.

"When I'm ready," Bonnie mumbles before passing out in Damon's arms.


	9. Nightcall

_1994_

Damon squinted his eyes up at the sun, which was hotter than it'd been before here. He had to check for his ring, twisting it around his finger, because of the burning heat. He heard leaves crunch as he stood, in the forest, his expression serious and pondering. He blinked a few times and turned his head to the side, trying to get a good view out of his peripheral. It was Bonnie, of course.

"Hey," Bonnie said as her eyes wandered from his back to the dirt on the ground. Her mouth shut as the silence engulfed them both. Her grimoire, which was in her right arm, dropped to her side as she took a deep breath. "I thought I'd come out here to practice a few spells… some new ones I learned."

Her brow furrowed as she spoke, hinting at the awkwardness she was emanating. Damon nodded slowly, thinking of something to say. His lips tightened as he blinked and turned around.

A thought entered his mind fast and he was prepared to say it as he turned around, but when he met her eyes he said nothing. He did nothing. Bonnie's face was pointed to the ground yet her eyes aiming at him. The sun sparkled in the green around her pupil and she slowly raised her chin to combat Damon's gaze.

"I was just out here," Damon finally spoke. Bonnie wondered if he was going to continue, but she just knelt down and put her grimoire in front of her. She glanced one last time before opening the grimoire, but by that time he was facing the other way.

"You came back," Damon said.

Bonnie ran her finger along the page, following the words and nodding. She did come back.

Her hand lifts to her bottom lip and her thumb brushes over it. She flicks her eyes to a tree in the distance for a moment, then back down at the grimoire. Reaching into her back pocket, she pulls out a small knife and stares at its curvy, short length. The blade part was serrated on the curves. Shouldn't be too hard to slice into her palms.

She lifts the knife with one of her hands and presses the tip into the palm of her other. Her mouth stretches in a wince as knife meets skin and blood grows from the cut like a boil. Dragging the knife down her palm, her breathing increases until she's finished. She switches hands and does the other also.

She closes her eyes and mumbles a few words of the spell, then pushes her palms into the hard sand.

Damon faces Bonnie again. An ache quelled inside of him as he said, "I'm sorry." Bonnie opens her eyes, first seeing the ground. Then, she glared them up at Damon. "And, I'm sorry about that too!"

Bonnie's chest rises as she lifts her palms from the ground. She blinks several times, her mouth teasing to open. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have gotten so easily upset."

Damon itches the end of his eyebrow with his thumb. "Yeah. You have somewhat of a temper, you know?"

"That's from being around you 24/7. So, thank you." Bonnie's mocking tone put a smile on Damon's face. The corners of his lips curled and his head shook a bit in satisfaction.

He walked up to her and squatted in front of her, completely invading her personal space. Neither of them seemed to care though.

"Seriously, we were both dropping truth bombs on each other," Damon said to her, his eyes planted on hers.

Bonnie dropped her head, trying to hide the smile growing on her face. She looks back up at him, her lips slightly parted. "Yeah, we were," She replies, delightfully.

Damon looks away, standing and dusting himself off. His eyelids start to close, stopping midway. "You were right, though. There are something's I just can't tell Elena…" Bonnie slowly stands, keeping her eyes on him. "I guess I'm scared of how she'll react." Bonnie's bottom jaw shifts to the side as her eyes shift to the opposite direction. "And I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

She looks back at Damon, as if she's looking at a painting on a wall, folding her arms. "Give yourself a hypothetical."

"Like an example?" Damon's expression wrinkles as he asks her. Bonnie nods. "Well, let's say I had a huge, terrible, disgusting secret. It was about…" He shakes his head and says: "It was about me murdering some innocent. Because they pissed me off." He shrugs. "I don't know. But would I tell Elena? Probably not."

Bonnie nods, though Damon didn't see, and she sits on her knees and looks at her grimoire.

"Would you tell Jeremy, if you did something like that?" Damon asked. Bonnie was caught off guard. Her mouth was open and eyes widened. She didn't know what she would do, if she's being honest.

"I think if we can't tell a person we love everything about ourselves good and bad, then maybe we don't love them as much they love us," Bonnie replied to his question. She flipped the archaic page of her grimoire and continues: "Or as much as we think we do."

Damon tilts his head at Bonnie, perplexed by what she said. "Are you saying I'm not in love with Elena?"

"Damon," Bonnie said in a long, drawn out tone that resembled annoyance. "You talked, I listened. And then you asked for my opinion."

"And you still didn't answer the question correctly," Damon bends down in front of her again and meets her challenging gaze. Her eyes narrow and she tilts her head. "Would. You. Tell. Jeremy?"

"Look—"

"Eh!" Damon yells, sounding like a buzzer and making Bonnie jump. With her eyes closed, she tries to stifle a laugh. "Wrong answer. Now, answer it correctly the next time and maybe… you'll get pancakes."

Bonnie gasps. Damon glares through her sarcastic tone as she clasps her hands together. "Pancakes! How did you know?"

Damon's shocked expression slowly turned into a pleasurable smile. He liked it when she was like this. It made him feel good seeing a girl as strong and earnest as her, mirror his wit and joy for banter so immeasurably. She made him fun and he did her.

"Well, since I know I'm getting pancakes for dinner tonight!" Bonnie says. She opens her mouth again to speak, but stops. A moment passes as she picks up her grimoire and stands. She speaks, "I really don't know."

Damon's brow raised. "Wrong answer."

"Ask me tomorrow," She says. Damon stands up and nods.

"Okay, but don't think I'm going to forget, Bon-Bon."

Bonnie moves past him and he follows her, turning on his heel and smiling. He watches her walk away then turns around and looks down. He sees two stoic, lotus flowers grown to their full potential. A smile teases the corner of his mouth.

"Bonnie! You did this?"

_Present_

Damon cradled Bonnie's head in his arms and studied her face. His brow creased when his eyes traveled from her eyes to her lips. He'd attempted to heal her, but it didn't work. Damon assumed there was nothing injured or hurt on her. It was a spell. To stop Kai from going through with his threats.

Damon's eyes moved up, glaring at Kai's immobile body. It angered Damon that even when unconscious, Kai still held that smirk upon his face. He wanted to rip it off his face. Completely remove the lips that taunted at him.

He looks away in an attempt to calm himself down. Then up. The moon's glow made Damon squint. It casted something like a spotlight down on him as he held Bonnie in his arms. Kai lying up against a tree next to them like a ragdoll. It was an unsettling image for him to imagine… to even think about: His arms wrapped under her body. Her head tilted slightly down, resting on his thigh. Kai passed out only a few feet away.

He thought about being a stranger observing all of this. Not a good scene.

Damon stands, Bonnie in his arms, and starts walking back to his car. The wind trembled, whipping in fits across the pavement. Damon stopped as he stepped foot on the broken concrete, hearing a boot click against the pavement.

"Stefan," Damon announces as he turns to face him. Stefan's lips shook slightly in vibrations. His eyes glossy and moist, filling with water as Damon's brow creases. This look is familiar to him, devastating but familiar. Damon's mouth opens in an uncontrollable force, his bottom lip releasing from his top like their shapes don't fit together.

Damon's eyes bounce around in their sockets. Jumping from here and there; energized blue beads ricocheting against the walls of his eyes as he searches his brother's face for an answer. There was only one logical answer. And this answer marinates in his throat and forces itself up. But Damon withholds. He wants Stefan to say it. To be sure.

Instead, Damon says: "What happened?" The base in his voice left as soon as his mouth shut and he stares at Stefan's saddened face. Wrinkles formed on Stefan's forehead as his lips parted to release a breath. The sky above painted a façade; beautiful stars bleeding into the dark sky like the cells whisking away inside blood. Stefan looks up at the sky, as does Damon, and Stefan's mouth rumbles like tectonic frets beneath the earth, and the words plummet the soft inside of his lips.

"It's Elena…" Stefan says as the words escape. Damon's eyes look back to Stefan, fire swirling inside the blue that confines his eye. Damon looks down at Bonnie, and Stefan's miserable eyes look at her as well.

"What happened, Stefan?" Damon continues. Stefan mouth opens.

"Why do you have Bonnie? What happen to her?"

"What happened to Elena?!" Damon's voice broke. He didn't want to know, although he already knew it. But there was something eerily tantalizing about the cadence, the voice, the sound of complete despair as it inches across the plush surface of the lips. And honest. Honesty is at the heel of a tone, and Damon knew just that. He knew hearing it would make it real, and not solely secluded in a soliloquy in his brain. He knew it was about Elena. All those times Stefan would come to him in desperation when Elena was in peril… his face never changed.

"Someone has her. Sent a video to my phone of them torturing her. They will kill her, Damon!" Stefan's arms rose to Damon. His face stirred in confusion, from sad to demanding to needy. It was a fit of emotions. They switched in a flux right in front of Damon. Damon's eyes slowly gravitated to Bonnie's face, and he knew he had a decision to make.

"I can't just leave, Bonnie."

"Damon, I need you…" Damon refused to look up. It took the every ounce of his being to fight this urge and watch the balls in Stefan's sockets release Damon. Release him from this fervent pain cycling through his cold body, release him from the reason of choice, the absolute of loss, and the unforgettable. The mordant pain that resides in the expense of others; the ones who get hurt. He didn't want to have to choose.

"Damon…" Stefan spoke again, his voice raking on the pink tissue designated deep in his throat. "Please…"

Damon couldn't detach from Bonnie's face. He could not look away. Her kindly features reflecting off the night sky like a violet vase in a moonlit room didn't let him. He didn't want to.

He turned away from Stefan and walked towards the car, doing what he came to do. Stefan looked away, his eyes blinking away in shudders.

Damon placed Bonnie in the backseat of her car. The thoughts in his head began to swell as he laid Bonnie's head on the backseat, his finger tracing down the side of her face to her chin. He let it sit there a moment. It circles down to the underside and his thumb replaces it. His face moves forward. The car light illuminating waves of dim rays inducing a dichotomy; an atmosphere of simple innocuous activity and conflicted grief of resolution.

Damon stops. His lips poised as his head hovers, slightly bobbing, over Bonnie's. A burn spreads through his back thigh. He reaches back and grasps a syringe with a needle. He tries to pull it out but his hand is stung with vervain. He uses his vampire speed to stand outside the car, and sees Matt standing a few feet ahead of him.

"I don't want to kill you," Damon says. Matt shakes his head.

"You should've left."

"I did!"

Another vervain syringe is shot into his neck. The poison travels to other parts of his dead viscera and paralyzes them until collapse. Damon's knees hit the pavement. His hand reaches for the needle and removes it. He heaves like a beast, his arms begin to branch out like a scarecrow, and he finds the gumption beneath the searing pain of vervain to kill whomever is trying to kill him… and he starts to quiver. Under a haze of purple night sky, his blood churns, scraping his inner skin as if to create a fire. He topples over and a cold, pale face meets a cold, browned ground.

Matt drags Damon's body next to Stefan's, folding his arms. Sarah, and the rest of their group, show up behind him.

"What the hell are we doing with them?" Matt asks. Regret melts onto his face each time Sarah puts him up to something, and it hardens as the coldness of her aura meshes with the malleable mush air of Matt's.

"What were supposed to do. Take them out." Sarah replies. Matt's eyes thin and he turns his gaze to the car.

"We're taking Bonnie with us."


	10. Come As You Are

It is the echo of drops of water panging a rusted, maroon surface that awakened Damon. His hands are tied behind his back, drenched in vervain. He opens his eyes as the rhythmic splash continues to plop.

_Plop. Plop. Plop._

"AH!" Stefan screams. Damon's eyes grow wider as he sees Stefan across from him, a rope attached to the ceiling and around his neck.

"Don't move, Stefan!" Damon shouts at Stefan when he notices the stools they are forced to balance on. Smoke rose from Stefan's neck as the rope rubs along his agitated skin. He grunts and wiggles. The chair tipped over and the vervain-soaked rope moves its rough threads into Stefan's skin. Slowly breaching the surface like a scalpel revealing the insides of a stomach.

"Hang on!" Damon screams. He looks on in anguish incapable of doing anything. Tears pour out of Stefan's eyes and move down his face as the smoke grows larger. The drops of water continue to plop, buried beneath Stefan's cries. Buried beneath the crackle and pop of tearing skin, peeling away on Stefan's neck as the rope sinks deeper.

"No!" Damon screams again as Stefan's head tilts up and the small slit of moonlight shows the intricate and entangled tubes breaking as the rope moves farther into Stefan's neck.

Damon looks away. A man appears in Damon's blurred vision. It is Matt. He sprints in from a shadowed area and lifts the stool, placing it under Stefan's feet.

Stefan rebalances himself and Damon feels a throb near his caustic heart, a banal gas building with the heartbeat, on and on and on as Stefan's neck starts its healing process. It relieves him and through the pain Damon finds a way to calm himself. Although, with Matt Donovan standing in front of him, his calm wouldn't last very long.

"Look who it is," Damon twitches in the poisoned noose, his voice straining to reach Matt through its corrupt cords. Matt hears the words though, spoken through veils of sharp bits that stuck to Matt whether he wanted them to or not. He'd been here before; on Damon's bad side. Matt may have been on the winning team now, but the tinge of black filling the bags under Damon's eyes frightened Matt. Damon would get out, Matt knew it, and the slight mix of disgust and agony holding Matt's gaze proved it even more.

"I'm sorry, Damon," Matt's voice was adamant. Deserving. Confident. Determined. In which defied his very unpoised posture, leaning slightly like a drunk as if he's allergic to Damon. And maybe he is, maybe Matt is allergic to Damon, to vampires, to the bats dressed in daylight.

"My brother almost died!"

"What were you doing to Bonnie?" Matt charges at Damon, looking up at him as Damon chuckles on the stool. He iss defenseless. Hands tied behind his back and a vervain soaked rope stinging his neck at every movement. But Damon still laughed.

"What are you going to do? You're a walking door mat."

Matt kicks the stool from under Damon and Damon's body drops, the rope burning through his skin. Like a carcass of fiery blood, his neck begets smoke and he doesn't muster a sound. His mouth is crumbled with anger, and his eyes shut to mask the forest fire of a fever imploding out from his neck.

Matt slowly walks around Damon as his legs flail around. Immense pain travels from Damon's neck to the rest of his body and the images he had of Stefan suffering are now of his own. He breathes in the burning flesh and in an instant… relief.

Matt places Damon's legs back on the stool.

"Matt!" Stefan screams. Matt ignores him. He was just a fly on the wall anyway.

"Shut up, Stefan!" Matt yells.

"Where's Elena?" Stefan asks. Matt stops in front of Damon and stares at him, then turns around to Stefan.

"She's in her dorm. Or at college… I don't know," Matt replies. His mouth hung open in suspicion.

"No, she's not," Stefan growls. If the rope didn't feel like molten blades grazing against his skin, Stefan would have already taken Matt out. The frustration infiltrates his voice without warning, and as he continues to tell Matt the truth, the sharpened pang in his voice begins to break:

"She's with your friend… my… And she's going to kill her."

It didn't take Matt long to realize Stefan's candor, how his voice flipped from hate to pleading. Matt took another look at Damon, for Bonnie, and in some sense believed in Damon. His face said one thing, but those devilish blue eyes always said another. Always. At least that's what Bonnie told Matt.

He believed her.

"If I let you go, will you kill me?" Matt asks Damon. Damon looked to the ground.

"Hell yes."

Matt takes a step back, then turns and walks back down the hall to the door. His steps beating along with the rhythm of the water drops.

_Plop. Plop. Plop._

Damon ignored Stefan's screaming. He yelled and yelled at Matt, then he yelled at Damon for saying what he did. It was nothing Damon hasn't heard before. He just wished Stefan's disappointment wasn't so misplaced and misguided.

"What is your endgame?" Matt asks Sarah. He sits on a broken desk, angled up like a mountain. His leg moves on top of his other one as he folds his arms. The look he gives Sarah is one of contempt as she leans against the walls tearing away. She steps off the dark, cratered wall and walks towards Matt.

"I don't have one," she replies. Her long hair lying delicately by her sides like waterfall over a cave, she matches Matts look with one gaze and he shutters, repositioning on the broken desk.

"Then, what the hell are we doing? First Stefan and Damon, and now you have Elena?"

"I thought you hated vampires?"

Matt rises from desk, looking down at Sarah. She steps closer to him and doesn't relent to move her eyes. She keeps them trained on his, challenging his scorn with fury. Matt saw it. A light in her eyes that was a lighthouse perishing against virulent waves. For a moment, she reminded him of a vampire addicted to impulse.

"I do…" Matt says after a quiet stare. "But this is wrong… I may feel indifferent right now, but Elena is still my friend!"

"It sounds you like you need to pick a side."

"What about Bonnie? We have her too."

"In adequate accommodations."

Matt looks away and at a window. Moonlight shines through. His mouth is scrunched up as he took a deep breath.

"This isn't right."

"Then what're you going to do about it?"

"End it."

Matt turns and walks across the debris filled room and towards the archway, but Sarah runs and pushes him into the wall. He bounces off of it, slamming onto the dirty ground and pressing hands against his head. Sarah stands in front of his head and looks down at him.

"I don't think so," She says. She kicks her leg up into the air and catches it, the corner of her mouth twitching outward in a quick burst, she releases her leg and her heel plunges down to Matt's face, but he stops it with his hands, feeling a pinch on its pale palm. He pushes her back away, and stands up as fast he could.

Hunched over, Matt says, "I'm not going to hit a girl." His head cocks to the side to stretch out the kinks.

"Good thing I'm more than that," Sarah says. She grunts and moves towards Matt in a spin, lifting her leg in the process. She connects the side of her boot with Matt's face and he stumbles into the wall behind him. Exhaling breath from his lungs, he pushes off the wall and charges at her. His shoulder sinks into her stomach and she lets out a despairing cough, falling over his shoulder.

They crash into the wall after Matt slips on broken wood.

"I thought you weren't going to hit me," Sarah said before popping Matt in the nose. She throws her arm out, her fist heading to Matt. He puts his forearm in front of the side of his face and stops it.

"That kick hurt," Matt replies and he cuffs his hand around her skinny twig of a neck, moving forward until her back is against a wall. Matt is comprised of shock and fear, shock because of the sudden devolvement of her face, relegating from determination to a stirring anxiety. The way her legs dangled in the air Matt was also surprised by his power, but he is in fear because of the imminent thrill of killing Sarah. It's canned in his mind, that fact, and he doesn't want to visit it again.

Sarah's legs flail as if a pit of fire is inches below her feet. She lifts her arms up and bashes them on Matt's forearm, but he wouldn't budge. And from what she sees, he wasn't going to.

She lifts her legs up and to the side, extending them to push off the wall. She pushes, moving the both of them with her force and Matt lets go, tripping over the debris rife on the ground. She hits the floor with a thud and turns on her back, holding her arm in pain.

Matt lifts onto his hands and knees, watching Sarah as she tries to calm her breathing. It sounded like knives combing her throat as she forced the breaths in and out of her. Matt is tired too, but after what she just did, he knew she wouldn't stop. He also knew that he had to save Stefan, Damon, and Elena… and get to Bonnie to explain everything before she finds out herself.

"Are you done?" Matt says standing on his feet.

"You're not stopping them," Sarah stands as she talks to him through faded breaths. "I won't allow it."

"Why?"

Sarah jumps and cycles her legs in one loop, sending a kick in Matt's chest. It sent him flying over the broken desk and out of the window. She storms out of the room to finish what she started.

Bonnie woke to the sounds of a familiar, crying voice bleeding through the feeble walls that she rested in. It's Elena.

Kai was the last of her worries as she leaped off of her bed and to the door. It was locked, but Bonnie yanked on it. She groans and pulls again, ripping the doorknob off and falling back into the bed. She stands up and runs to the door, banging on it.

"Let me out of here!" Bonnie screams. "Let me out!"

She beat on the door for a while, getting nothing in return. Soon, she stops. Takes a step back. Takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.

She knows Kai is around, but he is just a regular human being without a supply of benevolent witches, willing to stick their hand out for him and give up their magic. He's weak.

She needs to focus on finding and saving Elena, though it confused her on how they both ended up in captivity. Bonnie looks around the room. It is pleasant for a person to be held prisoner here. The lamps along the cream walls were dim, blanketing the ceiling with its bad lighting. Carpet floor with something similar to a cot as her bed, and it isn't exactly the cleanliest area, but Bonnie thinks it is still a step up from usual kidnapping scenarios.

She walks over and sits on the bed, reaching up to scratch the skin beside her ear. Damon has to know. Elena's his girlfriend, so she figured he must be around. But her screams started up again, echoing throughout her room. Why was Elena in so much peril, yet Bonnie is in comfortable confines?

Bonnie shakes her head. She knows exactly why, and that knowing tore through her spirit as she glares at the corner of the ceiling. It's because they need her. Someone needs her to be useful, to be a witch, to be a means to an end. It angers Bonnie. It didn't matter if Damon was here, or if Kai is around planning a rampage, or that Elena is being tortured rooms away. What matters is her being treated as an object again.

She stands, picking up the doorknob off the ground. Her outrageous reflection glares off of it. She stares at its chipped surface and rubs her thumb over it, a small flake revealing black falls from the knob. She blinks, looking away from herself and at the door. Her grip hardens around the knob and she throws it at the door.

She will escape. And it won't be because she needs to save Elena, or anything other than herself. Because she's not just an object, a witch… but a person. And she realizes this now.

She glares at the door, anger in her bones. A breath escapes her when she feels a sting on her palm. She looks at it, watching the skin open up and blood spill from the wound.

She almost smiles as she says, "Kai." And she doesn't know why.

Keeping her eyes on the door, she walks to it. She closes her eyes, channeling out Elena's cries like the calm before the storm, pressing her bloody palm on the door and feeling the blood gush out, and the tiny, tickly feeling of blood running down her arm as her fingers spread apart.

She goes into a trance, opening her eyes and appearing in a hallway. There was a door to the side of her. White. She takes a step towards it, her vision flashing in and out. She musters another step as the feeling of a hole opening into her intestines causing her to yell in pain starts. She puts her hand against the wall and rests, holding her stomach with the other.

She knew this spell would challenge her… but she needs to escape. For herself.

Her hand moves from her stomach and towards the white door. She looks around the door as her hands hover before it. It's a dark area with a spec of white. It's dirty, dilapidated, and falling apart; as was she. Though, the walls around her had no hope. She did.

Her palms press against the door and she takes a deep breath. They slowly gravitate to the doorknob, and she twists it. A throb pounds in her wrist and she lets out a breathless cry. She collapses to her knees. The doorknob falls to the ground, but she continues. She pushes on the door though her shoulders begin to crack, popping like overblown bags of ash. She could see the skin on her knuckles tearing, separating to reveal white, but Bonnie tries harder. The void in her stomach grows larger, feeling like a large pinch and twist on her organs.

She lets out a loud cry, pushing against the door with more force. The door breaks off as blood pours from her nose. It falls towards her but she crawls out of the way.

She sees herself standing before the door, palm out, blinking in and out. Bonnie stands, quickly, using the wall as her support. Her mouth hanging open as she looks forward with determination. She steps onto the door; feeling needles penetrating through her leg. She tilts her head up and screams. Her body still blinking in and out, Bonnie takes another step. She shuts her lips tight, withholding the agony deepening inside her.

Her eyes swell like balloons. Water leaks from them as she reaches for her body. Her hands claw for it. She stretches her fingers and they shake, tremble like vibrations, but she finally presses her middle finger to the palm.

She finds herself back inside her real body and falls to the ground, holding her stomach. She starts sobbing in a cradle, in between the archway of the door, crying and shaking and living in the tirade of pain. She saved herself, but it came with a cost, which was herself.

She stares at the bolts on the broken hinges of the door. It's ironic. She saved herself, but maybe she didn't.

Footsteps approach her. She looks up and sees Sarah.

Bonnie could barely speak, but she did, through the pain as she looks at the person who may have started all of this.

"What're you doing?" Bonnie asks.

"Helping you…" Sarah replies. She bends down, her hands clasped in front of her. "You need help."

More tears fall from Bonnie's eyes. Blood covered over her nose.

"No," Bonnie says, "I do not." Bonnie lifts her hand to Sarah and tries to push her away. She is too injured though, and couldn't use her magic. Sarah shakes her head and lightly taps her hand on Bonnie's cheek.

"It's okay, Bonnie. I got you."

"No!" Bonnie says, shaking her head in a frenzy, whipping back and forth like currents as Sarah grabs under Bonnie's arms and drags her down the hall.

"You are heavy!" Sarah exclaims.

"Let me go!" Bonnie pushes from her mouth. She is still in a lot of pain from that spell. And now, being dragged down the hall isn't making it better. Broken glass and tiny bits of wood and dirt grazing into her skin, entering her melanin as if they mesh together. Her shirt climbed up her back and revealed the tender, soft skin, letting the debris scrape into her skin.

"Now I don't know how you escaped but—"

"If you don't let me go I will kill you."

Sarah stops and looks down at Bonnie, laughing. "Look at you. You can barely talk." Sarah yanks Bonnie up and Bonnie groans. She continues pulling Bonnie down the hall.

"Where are you taking me?" Bonnie asks.

"You'll see."

Matt walks along the walls of the abandoned factory. He stops when he sees a man lying on the ground, holding his chest. Matt gets closer. His eyebrow raises as he sees a familiar face.

"Kai?" Matt asks.

"Everything hurts…" Kai says, slightly trembling on the ground. Matt bends down next to him.

"What happen to you?"

Kai turns his head to Matt's slowly. It hurt to move. Every inch of a movement felt like heated glass tracing on his skin.

He looks at Matt and his lips part. "Bonnie… she's in trouble…"

Matt's eyes's crease and Kai continues, "We need to find her."


	11. Bad Blood Good

**This is the real Sarah Salvatore, to clear up any confusion. **

Bonnie was hurting. The spell exhausted the last amount of energy in her body and she couldn't hold on any longer. She considered it… giving up. Tears seeped through her tight shut eyes with no trouble. She had no way of keeping them at bay. And every time she tried to move it was in ticks or twitches, because any long movements would bring on unbearable pain.

Bonnie rolls her bottom lip back into her mouth beginning to shake her head. The room is dark. She couldn't see anything. All she could hear was the petite huskiness of Sarah's voice, passing through the dark area, filling the silence that trapped her.

Sarah lifts Bonnie onto a wall, sitting her up against it. Sarah was going on and on and on as she drug Bonnie across the dirty floor. She said she was there to help, but all she has done is amped up the pain residing in Bonnie's body. She practically increased its intensity and it made Bonnie furious. Passionate anger infuriated in her mind and burned the sides of her chiseled cheeks, but there wasn't much she could do.

Powerless and fading, Bonnie held her chin high and looks around the dim lit room. Her head tilted down and her chest rhythmically binds with the sound of her wheezing.

"Oh, Bonnie, you don't sound too good," Sarah says in a voice that walked the gruesome border of sarcasm and spunk. Bonnie cuts a look to Sarah, creasing her eyes a bit. A wicked smile stretches across Sarah's skinny face, and for a moment Bonnie saw an uncanny resemblance to Elena. Human Elena, at least. The straight dark hair falling down either side of her face. Bonnie hopes that visual doesn't pop in her head again.

"I can get you something?" Sarah asks, which sounded less antagonizing and more endearing. Bonnie was good at reading people, but in her current state she couldn't follow what to be true or what to be false. Sarah is just as mysterious as a Salvatore, at the moment.

Bonnie shakes her head adamantly, her mouth coiled in spite.

Sarah nods. "I know you're mad at me, but I'm honest just trying to help." It's as if with each sentence the husk in her voice gives in, and she goes from unstable-insane to unstable-sympathetic and Bonnie doesn't know what to think.

Her eyes trail from Sarah's and around the room. Sarah sits at her desk, further up and to the right of Bonnie. She is looking through pages of… Bonnie couldn't tell.

"It's fascinating, isn't it?" Sarah poses a question. Bonnie sees a board stand next to her, holding a bulletin board in its place. She sees pictures of Stefan and Damon at the top, then strings connecting from their pictures to different papers. News articles glued together, pictures of people suffering from deadly attacks to the neck; all connecting back to the top like a neatly spun spider web.

Bonnie is intrigued, but her fear heightens. Sarah stands from her desk, walking towards the board.

"You weren't supposed to get caught in the middle of all of this."

Bonnie musters out a question, as much as it hurts to speak, "In the middle of what?" Bonnie tasted blood swish in her mouth like a tide, pouring from a wound that broke open through her question on the inside of her mouth. Though located on one side, it ached her entire mouth.

"Matt wasn't supposed to be here either…" Sarah continues, ignoring Bonnie's question purposefully. Bonnie's eyes grew wide when she heard Matt's name. He was here, knowing all of this is going on, and he's not doing a thing to put a stop to it. The emotional pain she begins to feel almost swallowed her physical pain. Confusion. Distraught. Betrayal. Emotions fill her mind as different thoughts race inside it. Her bottom lip begins to tremble, as an itch disrupts her face, and her hand reacts instinctively, lightly clawing her brown cheek. Her eyes swelled with wells of water, and she was feeling drained… emotionally and physically.

Sarah waits for Bonnie to say something. If she's to be honest, she was hoping to rile something inside of Bonnie. Matt turned on Sarah, coincidentally to Bonnie's defense, and Sarah wanted to turn the tides of this war. But, Bonnie just stares at the ground. She doesn't even look up at Sarah.

Bonnie thought about her relationship with Matt and what it always was. It's not that anymore. The roots of the relationship will stay the same but now, Bonnie immediately realizes, it's going to grow into something else.

"Bonnie?" Sarah asks. Bonnie doesn't hear her. All she hears is the annoying _plop_ of water drop and the dizzying sound of a buzzing streetlight. All she hears is Matt playing her all along. All she hears is him siding with the enemy, plotting to take Stefan and Damon. And actually holding Elena hostage.

A tear falls down the left side of Bonnie's face. She sniffles. "Is Matt here?" Bonnie pushes from her mouth. She meets Sarah's thin eyes and sees her nod, her eyes darkening as her chin moves down.

Bonnie looks away. She couldn't believe what she was hearing anyway. She thought Matt was her friend. The honest and human one… something that she used to desperately want to be. Bonnie circles the dirt ground with her finger, her lips part… she really didn't want to believe it to be true.

"Why should I believe you?" Bonnie challenges her. The words move slowly from her mouth, but every word had an effect on Sarah. Sarah is downright baffled. "We've been on opposite sides the entire time."

"You're not my enemy, Bonnie."

"Then, why are you with Matt?"

"We're only trying to protect Mystic Falls from the vampires. Jesus, when will it end? How many more people have to die before they realize the hurt they've caused?"

"They're vampires. Maybe they won't."

Sarah sits down in front of Bonnie, making her feel uneasy. Bonnie turned her face to the side, still keeping her eye on Sarah.

"So you agree with me?" Sarah asks. Her brow raises. "I think you do."

"I don't agree with you keeping me captive…" Bonnie replies.

"I didn't want to…" Sarah is telling the truth. Bonnie could see that. Anyone could. It gave Bonnie hope that when all of this is over, she'll let Elena go. And that maybe, just maybe, she won't have to incinerate her esophagus from the inside out.

"Did Matt put you up to this?" Bonnie asks.

"Matt told me where Elena was, and he helped me find Stefan and Damon," Sarah says. All Bonnie knows is what's in front of her. She didn't have time to think things through. The only time she had was reaction time, and Bonnie wanted to use it to melt Matt's eyes from his face and watch them drip out of his sockets onto the bare ground. She wanted them to snap and crackle like a flattened egg frying in a skillet; to resemble a glob of white and red goo. The sensation of anger circumvented the pain, and now, she wanted so much to find him.

"Let me go," barely escapes from Bonnie's mouth. She doesn't look Sarah's way. She fixates on the ground again, like it's something more than just bare ground covered in dirt and rock and gravel.

"I can't do that," Sarah replies.

"Why not?"

"Cause I know you'll try something."

"There's nothing I can do…"

Sarah just shakes her head, leaving Bonnie succumbing to a disillusioned state masked by anger. Bonnie slams her hand onto the ground.

"Ah!" Bonnie looks at her hand and sees a shard of glass sticking out of the middle of it. Sarah stands up and walks towards the board.

"Don't worry, I'm almost done," Sarah says, looking at the board. Bonnie touches the glass with her finger and wiggles it.

"Done with what? And don't beat around the bush or dismiss me… just explain to me what's going on," Bonnie responds while messing with the shard of glass. She pulls it out, instantly, and lets out a breath. Then, she tosses it away.

"I am torturing and killing Damon and Stefan tonight."

Bonnie's brow furrows, and she looks at Sarah in condemnation. If she could, she would stand up and face Sarah. She had Stefan and Damon too? Bonnie thought she was planning to get them, and she thought maybe they'd be around to help.

And the way Sarah said it… as if she knew there would be no regret or remorse. She'd had to have said over and over again for it to pass through her mouth so simply. It stuck with Bonnie, not because of what it meant, but because of how easy it was for Sarah to say.

"Why would you do that?"

"They ruined my life. Damon killed my mom…"

There is a brief pause between them, like Sarah initiated or wanted there to be a pause. For some kind of effect. At least that's what it seemed like to Bonnie. But Bonnie already knew all of this. Just like she knows the type of torture and pain Sarah could try on Damon would never compare to how he tortures himself.

Bonnie's eyes coasted off, like drifting waves in a pond surrounded by green, and she found herself remembering Damon in 1994. He was so different. As Bonnie remembered the good, Sarah continued:

"While she was pregnant with me… and then, he killed my father years later…" Bonnie could hear a break in Sarah's voice. It was like a skip on a record, but it snapped Bonnie out of her reminisce of 1994. It brought her back into the pain of reality. The human experience, how conflicted and dynamic it is, is always the harbinger of pain. Yet, the sudden tear in Sarah's voice, then the high pitched gasp to catch her breath, attuned to Bonnie. All that Bonnie had seen of Sarah before all of this was a girl with devilish qualities and ulterior motives. One sided. But now, Bonnie can see past it all. It may have been Bonnie's weakness, to forsake a person's bad behavior after finding out they are, after all, more than that. Because sometimes even when they're more than the bad parts, they never recognize that for themselves.

"I'm sorry…" Bonnie says back. Although Bonnie is finding that there is more to Sarah than what she's given, she is still the enemy. Her motives are clear, and they are putting her and her friends in danger, but Bonnie was genuinely sorry. She knows what it's like to not know a parent.

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to be when I stake Stefan and Damon for good."

"I know what Damon did is unforgivable, but do you really want to kill someone? Your family?"

"Family doesn't kill family. Stefan and Damon…" Sarah begins to shake her head, "They are not my family!"

Sarah kicks the board with her boot and it falls onto the wall. Bonnie jumps, looking at Sarah.

"What is all of that?" Bonnie asks.

"I recorded every human death, every human disaster, every human calamity that Stefan or Damon created… Every road leads back here…" Sarah stares off, shaking her head, as if she's still trying to make sense of it all. Then, her head stops shaking and she gets a weird, curious look in her eye. One similar to when Bonnie first met her. She looks at Bonnie and smiles. It was that wicked one again. The one that curved into a stretched out 's'. It creeps Bonnie out.

"Let me ask you a question," Sarah asks, "Why do you like him? Damon? He's an irredeemable spawn of Satan. So, please, enlightenment me. What is it about him that you find so goddamn endearing?"

Bonnie is at a loss for words. And as she stares at Sarah's cold eyes, it will remain that way.

"Wow, so you don't want to answer me," Sarah says.

"I want to get out of here."

"What did I just tell you?" Sarah says. Bonnie clenches her teeth, glaring at Sarah.

"Then, at least let Elena go."

"No… she's the torture device."

Bonnie tries to sit up. "No!" She screams. The pain is slowly going away, but it still hurts her to move. She takes a couple of deep breaths, although there's the slight feeling of tacks being stuck on the sides of her throat. It's calming her. It's what she needs.

"Please," Bonnie says, in a less panicked manner, "Leave her out of this."

"No."

Bonnie growls. "Motus!" She chants, raising her arm up at Sarah. Though, nothing happens. Bonnie bites the inside of her jaw to fight through the pain as she chants again. And again, except this time, her vision becomes blurred by salty water as tears come to the surface. She just wants to end this now.

"Motus!" Bonnie chants again, and even before she said it she knew nothing would happen. The base in her voice gave out, and the sob that was crawling up her throat meshed into her chant. She felt broken. Her head slowly tilted down as she shook with sobs. Her arm stretched out bounced slightly in the air, then it collapses down. "I give up," Bonnie slowly turns her head to the side, her mouth agape, and she leans her head on the wall.

Time moved slowly for her. Would this ever end?

"Bonnie!" Matt yells as he sprints down the hall towards the broken door. Kai grunts as he falls to the ground unable to hold himself up. He presses his palms onto the floor to push his face and body up.

"Matt! I'm dying here!" Kai yelled to him. Matt ignored him. His gaze is too focused on the broken hinges on the wall, the white door beneath his feet, and the blood smeared across it… His heart begins to beat faster. He takes another step and rubs his palm on his thigh. His mouth drops as he starts to say something, but nothing comes up. Just a small peep, like a quick melody from a bird, and his voice broke off because of the scene in front of him. The blood, the broken hinges… whatever happened here it didn't end well.

Matt reaches up to his neck, letting his anxiety move him, and he rubs along the back. It was Sarah, and he had no idea where she took Bonnie.

Matt turns around and sees Kai dragging himself to the wall, trying to at least sit himself up. Matt makes his way back to Kai.

"You going to help me up or what?" Kai asks, his shoulder pressed against the wall as he hung his head back to look up at Matt.

Matt shakes his head, looking elsewhere. His eyes fixed inside a whirlwind of fire and ice, anger and sadness twist and whip inside his sockets, emotions delineating themselves through his transparent outlook. His cold lips jump apart, and they slightly shake in the transient silence…

"Hello?" Kai asks, annoyingly. "Did you hear me?"

Then, Matt interrupted Kai, saying: "Bonnie is dead."

Kai suddenly felt warm. Absent-minded, his eyes went heavy for a second. A sliver of heat trailed down chest, splitting throughout his body from there. He blinked a couple seconds, unsure of what just happened.

He latched onto Matt's ankle tight, and glared at him.

"No, she's not. Idiot." Kai told him, boldly. Matt snatched his leg away from Kai, but the looks of disgust held upon their faces stayed. And they stared each other in the eyes, until Matt looked away.

"How do you know? You didn't see what I just saw!" Matt screams.

"I know, okay? I just know."

Matt kneels down and grabs Kai by the shoulders.

"Ouch!" Kai yells. Matt pulls him up off the ground, and throws one of Kai's arms over his shoulders. Matt starts to walk down the hall quickly, but Kai is limping. "Easy. Where are we going?"

"You say she isn't dead, so let's find her!"

Bonnie lets the sound of crackling wood enter her ears. Her eyes are closed as she imagines the fire navigating the odd stack of logs to reach the air and dissipate. It soothed her. She opens her eyes to see an open pit, with waves of bright red and oranges whipping up and out. The corner of her mouth slightly moves. It twitches towards her cheek as if it's been cemented in that neutral, content position for years. It surprised Bonnie that she could still smile, or at least attempt to, after all that's happened.

It all seemed like she'd arrived to a dead end. Because that's how she imagined dead ends. An imaginary light in front of her, glowing its radiant waves in its vicinity and filling a dark area with hope. The light had a catch though, a fiery and burning catch that scarred those who dared to stand to close. She knew someone who'd been pulled into a dead end, pulled in by its gorgeous, mysterious semblance and unexposed to its deadly, debilitating consequences.

Once Damon thought he found out the truth about 1994, there was no more hope for him. Bonnie hated this. It was all lies to her. There was always hope, you just had to believe it. She didn't believe when one night, in front of a fire pit, Damon described to her what he thought of losing hope. It didn't surprise her at the time, it didn't shake her and affect her the way it is now that Damon would say this. It just never translated the way he wanted it too because Bonnie had hope. But now, with no one but herself, it translated just as a quill pen elegantly moves across a page, in graceful simplicity.

She didn't like this, as she chuckles to herself. She didn't like that she understood what Damon meant that night.

"I'm sorry," She hears Sarah's voice coming from afar, but she couldn't see her. "I had to go deal with Elena awhile."

Bonnie listens to the click of Sarah's boots as she got closer. That smile that almost shaped her face was long gone.

"You're not going to say anything?" Sarah continues. "Your friend is dead…" Sarah waited a moment for a response, and her steps slowed in the process. Bonnie saw her step in front of the fire with her hands on her hips. "Did you hear what I said?"

"What do you want me to say?" Bonnie pushed through her lips. Sarah walked closer to Bonnie and crouched in front of her.

"Jesus," Sarah said to herself, although Bonnie heard her. Sarah grabbed Bonnie's chin and examined her face. Her skin is tearing. Her cheek had a scar with a path of dry blood running to her jawline. Her lips are as pale as ash and her eyes drowning inside their beholders.

"My friend's dead?" Bonnie went on, and each time her lips moved it felt like needles were being inserted into her lip line. "Well, she's supernatural and I'm supernatural… maybe I'll see her again."

"How long was I gone?" Sarah asks. Bonnie wonders if this concern is real, but then again, she doesn't care. There's no more hope for her, so she doesn't care.

"Wait…" Kai told Matt as he basically dragged Kai down the abandoned hall.

"I'm literally carrying you!" Matt replies.

"We have been walking for hours and I'm hurt!"

"Fine. You want to stop?" Matt shoves Kai against the wall. "Then we'll stop!"

Kai held onto the cracking wall, flakes of it falling down like worn out pages. He could hardly feel the wall. He stumbles back, touching his arms as they lightly tremble. He could barely feel a thing. The only thing that he feels are stitches breaking as his lips part and the sting that brings throughout his lips as he opens his mouth.

"I can't feel a thing."

Matt gives a confusing look to Kai, whose body latches back onto the wall as he stumbles, and he holds onto it like it's his lifeline.

"What are you talking about?" Matt asks. His voice relaying a seriousness under its deep tone.

"Are my lips tearing?" Kai asks.

"No… Why would they be?"

"Forget that. Me and her are like two peas in a pod!" Kai smirks, struggling to stand up straight. "Attached at the hip."

"I'm going to need you to be a little more clearer for me."

"It used to feel like blades were constantly being drug on my skin; digging so deep it's breaking bone. It was agonizing and unbearable and I was not sure how much I can hold on… And what I'm going through now, I know it's still there but it's fading slowly…"

"So what does this have to do with Bonnie? She's dead?"

"No, Matt. You're still wrong, but I think she's dying or something."

Matt knew Kai was a liar. From what Bonnie has told him, he's a manipulative, deceptive abomination that will say anything to get what he wants. In any other case, he wouldn't believe him. This was about Bonnie. When he found her, she was passed out. And when he found Kai, he was just awakening, yet still in pain.

"Aren't you working with a vampire slayer or something? You guys don't have bottles of vampire blood?"

Matt's eyes light up and stretch as he thinks of Stefan and Damon, something like a free blood supply. If Kai is telling the truth, he knew Stefan and Damon would be the first to go to.

"Stefan…" Damon says, looking at his little brother calmly. Stefan had his eyes fixed on the ground, wondering if they would get out and if they'd find Elena before Sarah did anything final. He hears his brother call his name again. It was soft-spoken, and he knew whatever Damon had to say would mask the truth hidden beneath.

"We'll get out," Damon pressed on. "We'll find her."

"Yeah, maybe, Damon…" Stefan said. "But what if we don't."

"We will."

Stefan left it at that. He knew he wouldn't change Damon's mind, even if he truly believed he was lying. And Stefan was tired of thinking about. The pain of the rope lightly dragging under his chin is enough to bear, he doesn't need to constantly wonder if Elena was okay. He sighed and tried to reposition himself on the stool.

"So, what's going on with you and Bonnie?" Stefan asks, attempting to change the subject. He's seen the sudden change in Damon's behavior, there just wasn't anytime to say anything. Now felt like as right as anytime.

Damon's eyes creased at Stefan. He focused on choosing the right words, but he didn't really know what to say.

All of a sudden, a heat traveled through his body like he'd drunk some potent, warm blood. It felt good. And as his eyes scattered in their sockets as he searched for reasons why he felt that, and the thoughts in his head tripped and twisted over one another, it felt _right_.

"Oh, come on, Damon," Stefan said playfully. "You can tell me."

Damon opens his mouth, choosing to have a conversation rather than hear the sound of water _plop_ over and over, and says:

"1994 was tough. It was only the two of us for a long, long time and… we bonded."

"Bonded?"

"Yeah. She's not the worse witch once you get to know her."

Stefan smiles. It was weird for him to see his brother talk about someone else other than Elena with a certain smile in his eyes. Stefan saw how the mention of Bonnie's name made him speechless, and he'd never forget that pause before he answered.

Damon wouldn't either. He found himself at a loss for words because it culminated physically in his body. He probably would never admit it, but with Bonnie he felt something similar to what he feels with Stefan.

"Well, no, she isn't Damon," Stefan continues. "And I'm surprised you gave her a chance."

"She gave me one, so I just had to return the favor."

"She did?"

"Bonnie held my hand before we went flashing out of existence, she saved me."

Damon couldn't tell whether Stefan was laughing or smiling at his comment, but the way his nostrils flared and wrinkles formed at the corners of his eyes told Damon that it made him happy. And that's all that mattered in this moment, because Stefan made Damon feel whole, yet conflicted, but always at _home_.

And if Stefan is happy, or at least in a good place in his mind, Damon knew that he could conjure up a smile too.


	12. Bad Blood Bad

"Here we are," Matt says. He walks into the room Stefan and Damon were being held in, their necks enclosed by vervain-soaked ropes and wrists tied behind their backs.

Damon's nose twitches as he smells Matt's fresh blood. He is hungry. He looks across the way at Stefan.

"Matt… Let us go," Stefan pleads. Sweat forms on his forehead while he glares through the darkness at Matt. Matt reaches the both of them, and Damon's brow furrows when he sees another person with him.

"The hell is he doing here?" Damon asks. He sees that repetitive little smirk wiggle across Kai's face. Damon shakes his head, despite the rope rubbing against his neck; the brittle hairs tearing skin like it's doused in acid. He couldn't stand the sight of Kai.

"He's here because we need help." Matt explains.

"Help with what?" Damon is on the edge of irritability as Matt and Kai's existence continue to rage him. He and his brother are the ones in danger. A hunger accumulating beneath their boiling skin, making itself known each time they feel pain. Each detriment of their being adds onto the layers of hunger building inside them.

"Kai says Bonnie is in trouble." Damon's mouth drops.

"What?" Stefan asks.

"Yeah. I can feel her wasting away… as am I." Kai says, walking towards Damon. He stands in front of the cold warrior that's been keeping him and his brother grounded under these dreadful circumstances. Kai's head tilts, facing Damon with eyes fit to deal with the devil.

"So, what do you say, Damon?" Kai poses a question. "Do you want to help your girlfriend?"

Damon takes a deep breath and keeps himself from attacking himself. He hates how smug he can be, and he hates that helping Bonnie means helping Kai.

"Damon, let him drink your blood!" Matt demands, standing behind Kai.

"Do I have a choice?" Damon asks while standing in front of the two of them. It surprised him they hadn't just taken his blood and left.

Matt's head tilts up as he realizes what Damon meant, and probably how stupid he's been to not realize it. His mind kicks into gear and he pulls Kai around to the side of Damon. Matt reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small knife. He grabs Damon's arm, yanking him towards Kai.

"Ow! In agony here!" Damon belts out.

Matt cuts his eyes up at Damon's face, slicing across his wrist. He urges Kai to drink and he does.

Pulling away from Damon's wrist, Kai says "Woo! I'm feeling better already!"

"Drink more so we know she's okay."

Kai drinks more of Damon's blood, feeling rejuvenated. He tilts his head back and his lips release from each other, blood trickles down the side of his face from the corner of his mouth.

Bonnie breathes in, looking to the side. She inhales again. The air moves smoothly down her throat. She lifts up her hand and stares at it.

She feels good. Healthy. She looks at Sarah, who's still in front of her and checking her phone.

"They're on their way," Sarah says to herself, and putting her phone into her pocket.

"Who?" Bonnie asks.

"My friends. The ones you met in the woods? They were out looking for anymore vampire activity…" Sarah's voice trails off as Bonnie stands in front of her. Sarah stands as well, quickly, unsure of what is going to happen next.

"You look scared."

"I just thought you were…"

"What? Dying? I was… but… now I'm not." Bonnie's brow raised as she gives Sarah a vengeful smile. She shrugs.

Bonnie pushes her hand towards Sarah and Sarah flies back, soaring over the fire pit and slamming into the wall. Bonnie quickly moves to her as Sarah places her hand on her back and rolls over.

"What was this fire for anyway?" Bonnie asks, circling around the fire. She is elated. Her magic is back and the energy swirling inside her veins is intoxicating. It electrified her in the best way, giving her spark back and turning her good soul to a tattered black. She steps around the fire and stands before Sarah, who is still in shock at the turn of events.

"Bonnie, wait…" Sarah tries to beg. Bonnie shakes her head fast, like she'd just eaten something she didn't like.

"No." Her voice stung with resent. The flames grew as Bonnie placed on her hand above it. It moves swiftly to Sarah's direction and a line of fire forms a path to Sarah. She screams as she flails her right arm around, trying to wave the flames away. Bonnie is focused though, her eyes planted on Sarah, and no amount of wind nor dirt will put the fire out that Bonnie's placed upon Sarah.

"Don't! Please!" Sarah continues.

Bonnie's reaches out her hand and lowers it. The fire disappears from Sarah's arm and desperate breaths from Sarah fade into sobs that shook in the silence.

Bonnie mocks Sarah's begging, ignoring her sobs and cries. "I can't believe you tried to drag me into this."

"I told you—" Bonnie's hand shapes into a claw as the magical energies swim through her body along with her blood. A fire starts on Sarah's arm again and she screams like a vulture in the night sky. It echoes in the stone-walled room and Bonnie twists her hand up to the ceiling. The fire grows larger; flickering flames of dark red whip up the trails of orange.

Sarah flops against the barren ground. She beats her arm against it to try and put out the fire. The fire seeps through the cracks of Sarah's buttery skin and crawls its way up her arm to her neck. The dead eyed look in Bonnie's eyes gave away fearlessness and a hint of apathy. The balance was tipped, once again unbalanced, but tipped into the hands of Bonnie— who felt she was at the end of the road. Her face was still scarred, her lips still chapped and white from the cold air, and eyes losing the tint of green that complemented her bubbly aura.

The fire subsides as Bonnie lowers her arm. Bonnie stares at Sarah's unconscious body. She crouches next to her smoking arm, and places her hand on Sarah's pulse. She isn't breathing. Bonnie's eyes narrow a bit and she leans over, moving her face closer to Sarah's. She lightly grazed Sarah's cheek with her lips.

"One," Bonnie says above her face. She stands up and walks away. Never looking back.

Kai moans. He is feeling one hundred times better with the vampire blood in his system, and he can already feel that Bonnie is feeling better too.

"This stuff is awesome!" Kai yells.

"Get him away from me!" Damon yells at Matt, and Matt pulls Kai away from Damon's wrist. "Now, help me out."

Matt turns around to look at Kai, smiling. Kai looks confused at Matt's evil grin. He isn't sure why Matt is throwing him that look.

Matt faces Damon again and his eyes fill with a mix of a tease and satisfaction.

"I'm not letting you out." Matt claims. Kai gasps and a low growl leaves Stefan's mouth. Damon looks up at Stefan, urging him to calm down. Which is ironic because Damon is furious from Matt's decision.

"What did you just say?" Damon asks, trying to fight the impulse to lash out. He isn't trying to hurt himself, or push Matt even further away from helping him. He just really wanted to be free of these ropes and chains grinding against his already agitated skin.

"I'm not letting you out, Damon," Matt repeats, his face poised in a serious manner. It began to frustrate Damon that Matt could muster a threat on top of a cold look. It aggravates him how much power this gave Matt, and he hates how Matt consumed this power like a drug.

Damon didn't know what to say, or how to even reply. He shut his eyes tight, then opened them. His voice spoke low, but teetering on the line of calmness and anger: "Why not?"

"I saw you with Bonnie's lifeless body, looking at it, preying over it like some kind of animal!"

"I was helping her!"

"It didn't look like it."

"Matt, if you leave me in here, I will—"

"What?" That's when a chill passes over Damon. A daunting chill that Matt would really go through with this. He understood Matt's motive to protect Bonnie, but he did not understand being at the helm of this dire scenario.

Matt's voice never rose. It stayed on a constant line of sincerity and gruff. Damon shifted on the stool, his legs losing the energy they once possessed.

"What're you going to do, Damon?" Matt shrugs.

"Do I really have to say it?" Damon responds, his voice smothered in contempt. He let in the anger and fire that was hidden underneath the calm façade from before. And at any minute, Damon could explode… killing himself in the process.

Matt just shakes his head. There is nothing more to say. This serious exchange turned to one of pity, stemming directly from Matt's gaze. He felt sorry for Damon, and not because he was leaving him there to rot. He took pity upon him because he'd never change. Matt would still be in constant danger in the vicinity of Damon, under the gauge of vague threats and death wishes sent by the crippling man standing in front of him. This situation flipped the scales. It put Matt in a position where he had the power to choose to live or not. Not some vampire. Not Damon Salvatore, or any other Salvatore who's been somehow integrated into his life. Whether he let them in or not.

Matt rubs the back of his neck, thinking deeply about this decision.

He is only trying to protect the ones he loves and himself. Damon is a threat to not only him but life itself.

He stares at Damon and challenges his virulent verbal attacks by saying, "You'll never change. You'll always be the vampire that feeds off of fear and blood and ruin…"

Damon grew rabid. Not even Stefan could calm him down. The veins underneath his eyes began to bulge and his fangs elongated as he snaps at Matt constantly. Matt takes a step back, glaring at this monster.

"Bonnie was wrong…" Matt delivers. Damon stops his tyrant and his fangs retract. His eyes fall to the ground, like blue mercury sliding down a white wall. "And I'm not going to let you put her in anymore danger."

"Can we go now?" Kai asks. Matt mugs Kai then gestures for him to follow. As they leave, shutting the door and locking it, Damon turns to face the door.

"What just happened?" Stefan asks Damon.

Damon, eyes still focused on the door, says: "It's over, Stefan."

Bonnie opens the door to a small room lit by a red light. She walks in, seeing splats of black on the walls. _Blood spill_, Bonnie thought. She walks over to the wall, placing a finger on one of the spots. She wonders if it's Elena's.

"Elena!" Bonnie calls. Feet shuffle nearby and Bonnie hears it, walking towards the noise. She stops when one of the people from the community group is standing a few feet in front of her. A crossbow is pointed at her head and the girl starts walking towards Bonnie.

"Do not move," The girl told Bonnie. The girl's voice was high pitched, but she knew how to place conviction inside of it. Bonnie's head falls to the side as she looks at the girl in the red light. She raises her arm up at the girl and begins turning her palm towards her own face. The crossbow turns to the girl's face and a cowardice look washes over her face.

"What're you doing?!" The girl pleads as she sees the side of the crossbow. "Stop!"

"You work for Sarah? You die." Bonnie's hand continues to turn until her palm his facing her. She balls her hand into a fist and the crossbow fires into the girl's eye. She screeches, her mouth wide open, and falls straight back onto the ground.

She walks over to the girl and takes the crossbow from her hands. She stands, walking the path the girl came from.

She enters a narrow hall, with two doors on the left side. As she slowly creeps down the hall, she hears Elena's cries and sobs again. Bonnie quickens her pace, shifting into a sprint. Dirt flies into the air from her tracks as she sprints to the first door.

She walks in and slams right into an elbow. Bonnie falls on her back and holds her nose, rolling onto her side. She opens her eyes and sees another community group member. It's the vile and insane Leech, rubbing his bare elbow and staring at Bonnie.

The impact was hurtful, and Bonnie didn't want to try to move until there is dire reason to do so.

She watches Leech walk over to a bag on an old desk and sift through it. He pulls out a walkie-talkie and a gun.

"Sarah…" He speaks into the walkie. Bonnie turns onto her stomach and sees the crossbow laying in the hall. "Sarah, come in!" Leech speaks again. Bonnie crawls towards the crossbow on her forearms. She looks back again and sees Leech charging towards her. She gasps and crawls quickly to the crossbow, grabbing it. Whipping around, she pulls the trigger and the arrow flies into his neck.

He clutches it and stumbles back into the room. Bonnie stands, wiping under her nose and seeing blood. She wipes it on her shirt and walks up to Leech as he slides down the wall, shaking.

"Where is Elena?" Bonnie asks. He doesn't say anything. He just shakes and trembles. Bonnie stares at him, demanding an answer, and he delivers the same stare back, challenging her from his invaluable position. He grips the arrow and grunts, pulling it out of his neck. Bonnie points the crossbow at him instinctively, and watches as the arrows moves out of his neck. He groans loudly as he finally removes it and tosses it. His eyes look to the side at the gun resting on the table.

Bonnie's head tilts up. "Go for it and the next one goes in your heart."

Leech's eyes narrowed at her and he launches at the gun. Bonnie shoots another arrow at his chest and he falls back.

"Told you," She says as she walks over to him, stomping her foot onto his chest. She grips the arrow and rips it out of his chest and he screams.

"You missed," Leech tells her. She steps off of him, throwing the arrow onto the table.

"I meant too!" Bonnie hits Leech across the face with the crossbow, leaving him staring at the ground a minute. She glares at him, waiting for him to look back up at her. "Now, where is Elena?"

"She's not here." Blood slips through his lips as he speaks to her.

"What do you mean, she's not here?"

"What you heard was just a recording… we let her go hours before we brought you and the two vampires here."

Bonnie starts shaking her head and points the crossbow at Leech. He couldn't see that she was shaking inside. An earthquake had started beneath her skin as her finger rubbed along the crossbow's trigger.

"Lies…" Bonnie replies.

"I'm telling the truth—" Bonnie fires the crossbow between his eyes, leaving him dead midsentence.

She turns around and exits the room, sprinting down the hall again.

"Elena!" She calls.

She reaches the next room and sees a phone lying on the ground. She picks it up and touches the screen. She hears the same screams and sobs from earlier that were Elena's. She tosses the phone against the wall and it breaks. Pacing the room, Bonnie didn't know what to think of Sarah. The girl was always so unpredictable, able to mount emotions at an instant to pull Bonnie in, while at the same time bring terror and damnation to anyone who crosses her.

This recording… Bonnie didn't know to think of it as completely and sadistically diabolical or to think that Sarah had a soft spot and decided to let Elena go.

"Bonnie Bennett…" Bonnie looks to the door and sees Greg leaning against it. "I remember you were in my second grade class."

Bonnie's brow rose. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, Mrs. Carpenter… glasses with the lisp? Short and stocky?"

Bonnie shakes her head, raising the crossbow up to him. "Sorry, I don't remember."

She looks through the eye sights at his face, while he mouths off about how Bonnie shouldn't be doing this. How she doesn't know how to work a crossbow, and how none of this is a concern of her. She moves the crossbow from his eyes to his nose to his mouth to his ears, trying to figure out what to shoot next. His mouth, maybe, so he'd just shut up.

She lowers the crossbow, realizing that he is right about one thing. Tossing the crossbow to the side, she lifts Greg inches from the ground with her magic and smirks.

"Nice, right?" Bonnie says.

"Put me down!"

Bonnie shrugs, pushing his body out of the room and into the rocky wall. Dust falls from it as she pulls him back and does it again. He coughs up blood and it stains his shirt, reminding Bonnie of the blood splats on the wall. Reminding her, putting her mind in rewind, that they tortured her friend. Bonnie drops him onto the ground, walking towards him.

"I wasn't going to kill you," He says to her. "So, why are you doing this?"

"Because you tortured my friend and have my other ones in hostage. I don't care what you were going to do, I only care what I'm going to do."

Bonnie clasps her hands together, ripping his esophagus in half. He croaks as he fights to find a breath. Bonnie just watches him as he twists and turns, trying hard to fight for his life. But it was gone. She knew it. She steps past his body and walks down the hall, looking back. He catches her gaze, and Bonnie realized that he knew it too.

_1994_

Bonnie walks out of her house, drying her face from the tears. Sun is shining as usual, blazing down rays of foggy light onto the streets of Mystic Falls. She takes a step down her porch and begins walking towards the street. Her grimoire is at her side as she walks away, thinking about how much longer she'd be stuck here.

She walks onto the main street of Mystic Falls, looking up at the clock tower.

The clock never moves. It just stays in its pointed position. Big hand on six, little hand on three.

Bonnie sits on a bench, looking out into the quiet, empty Mystic Falls town. She peers down at the ground and her eyes mellow into soft bricks, forcing themselves down at every moment and averting inside their holes in swift motion. She didn't want to be sad… but it was everywhere. It was in the leaves falling from the trees, the clear sky above, in the streets and buildings…

She opens her grimoire and thinks of Damon. He'd always helped distract her from the swallowing despair of 1994; rescue her from the layered bleakness of the atmosphere. If he was challenging her to find her power or telling her she wasn't as annoying as he thought she was… he supported her.

He was one of the reasons she got her power back, and she looks through her grimoire to grow and learn more as a witch. Maybe find a way to escape this prison herself…

Bonnie's eyes grow large just as the pace of the wind picks up; moving past her sharply. She sees a picture of a lotus flower. A hand drawn, white lotus flower in the upper right space of the wrinkled page. Next to it read _Lotus Evictus_. A different inscription lay under it, full of different symbols and pictures around it on the next couple of pages.

The spell would take a considerable amount of power, but she wanted to do it. It wasn't a pure spell, it had its consequences just as any but what kept Bonnie evasive of it was its beginning properties. It was consequential from the start, but with no one around… it didn't matter. She wanted to do this spell because there is no one but Kai, whom she didn't care if she hurt. It was something that would damage a whole city, affect an entire town, and engulf it with a virus that could only be stopped by killing the one who started.

Shewanted to prove to herself that she could pull off a powerful spell and live to see it. She tries to remember Damon's and her grams encouraging words to start the spell. Sometimes all it takes a little faith and belief from others for her to believe in herself. That's what she did.

She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and begins to chant…

_Present_

What Bonnie didn't know is how long that spell would take, and how much power it would really need. She didn't have that in 1994. The only thing she could complete was _Supra Blossom_, a training segment before starting the spell, which was simple. The growth of lotus flowers from her blood, the spell caster.

After rising from a spell that almost took her life from earlier, she knows there is nothing she couldn't do. All of the essential ingredients are here for _Lotus Evictus_, and she's already began session one… the trial.

Matt turns around and looks at Kai, pointing to his shoes then placing the finger on his own lips.

"I'm not being—" Kai begins, but Matt sh's him in frustration, his eyes widening. He turns to face front, getting closer to the man in front of him. He sneaks up behind him, wrapping his arm around his neck. The man tries to get out, putting his hands on Matt's arm.

"Lance! Lance, it's me!" Matt says. He loosens his grip and Lance removes Matt's arm, pushing away from him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lance asks.

"I need to get to the rest of the vervain," Matt replies.

"Why?"

"Just let me through."

Bonnie walks into a room with a broken desk.

"Stefan? Damon?" She calls. She walks further into the room and hears a phone vibrating. Circling around the desk, she finds a bag. Her phone is inside of it, ringing.

Elena. Bonnie answers.

"Elena!" Bonnie says, letting out a gasp. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, Bonnie!" Elena replies. Bonnie smiles as she hears Elena chuckle. It's nice to know she's okay.

"Did they hurt you bad?" Bonnie asks.

"I don't know… I'm just scared of what they'll do to Stefan and Damon."

"They're not going to do anything. I won't let them!"

Bonnie hears a ding on her phone and she looks at it. It's a text.

"What?" Bonnie questions, shocked at what she just saw.

"What is it?" Elena asks.

Bonnie puts the phone back to her ear, walking towards the broken window. "I just got a text from Damon."

Matt pulls out a phone from his pocket. It is Damon's. He inhales from his nose, then exhales, and sends a text to Bonnie that read:

_I got out. I know you'll be mad I left you, but I know you can take care of yourself. _

Kai stands over Matt's shoulder. "What're you doing?"

"What's right for Bonnie," Matt says, looking straight.

"How do you know what's right for her?"

Matt has nothing to say. He just wants to protect her, and feels this is the only way. She doesn't like to be dragged into mess like this and he thinks he's doing her a favor. Remaining in Damon's presence only heightens the chance she'll be in danger.

"So, you're just leaving Damon and Stefan to die?" Kai asks.

"Yeah. What do you care?" Matt replies.

"I don't."

Bonnie reads the message again. She blinks several times, trying to understand the text and what Damon did. She almost died in here, and in that time frame Damon could have left at any moment. It hurt her… it hurt her to her core. Her eyes begin to flare up as tears fill them. She fights them off and storms out of the room.

She isn't about to cry again. Not over anyone. She just wants to leave this place now.

Her phone vibrates again and it's Matt. Her eyes narrow and she feels lit like a fire… Matt made her livid after what he did.

"Hello," Bonnie answers. The inflection of her voice rose. "Matt, I don't even know what to say!"

"I'm outside, Bon."

Bonnie hangs up. She starts walking down the hall, her pace quickens madly, and soon she is in a full sprint. She sprints until she finds herself outside, facing Matt's grief stricken face. Kai stands next to Matt, his mouth agape as he notices the expression on Bonnie's face.

Bonnie couldn't control the energy inside her body, beating against her skin to get out. It was hot and rising. She twitches her head to the right and marches out of the building. Matt swallows as he sees Bonnie getting closer. He wouldn't run. Whatever Bonnie had to say or do… he would face it.

"Bonnie, I'm sorry." Matt says. His voice breaks.

"I knew you would say that," Bonnie responds, her upper lip revealing her top teeth as she glares at Matt. She stops walking and places her hand at Matt.

"Uh oh…" remarks Kai.

Bonnie lifts Matt into the air.

"Wait, Bon!" Matt begs. A tear falls from his eye. His mouth hangs open. Bonnie's palm twists to face upward and Matt is turned upside down.

"You betrayed me…" Bonnie's voice is low and undaunted. There were no trepidations in her voice. No breaks. She didn't see a friend. She sees a traitor.

"Bonnie, I didn't know what we were doing… If I had known—"

"Didn't I tell you to remember who your friends were?" Bonnie cuts him off. Her voice and her actions in combination is like a forest fire, growing larger and larger without something or someone to stop it.

"Bonnie, I really don't know what to say. All I know is… I'm sorry and all I wanted was the best for you." Tears ran profusely down Matt's pale face. He sniffles then gasps, as Bonnie gently places him back on the ground.

"Shit, Bonnie!" Kai yells.

Bonnie falls to her knees, staring at the ground. She has a content expression on her face. Both Matt and Kai walk up to her.

The three of them welcome a silence. Bonnie doesn't move her gaze from the ground. Matt stares at Bonnie, his look now confined in sympathy. He crouches next to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. She still doesn't look at him.

Kai rocks back and forth, awkwardly. He yawns, swinging his arms behind his back to clasp.

Matt wraps his arms around Bonnie, and slowly goes in for a hug. She exhales in disgust and shrugs him off. Matt looks down at the ground, then back up at her. Her eyes were narrowed. A face of determination.

"It's time to end this…" She says, standing and looking at both Kai and Matt. "I learned a lot in 1994."

Facing the building, left standing in the middle of a forest, her chin rises and a fire starts at the door way.

"I learned to do magic," Bonnie continues as the fire spreads along the edges of the building and inside of it. "And I learned to look out for myself…" Kai sees flames rise in a window on the second floor. He looks on in amazement.

Bonnie turns back around to them, the building in flames behind her, and says:

"So, that's what I'm going to do now… look out for myself."

She walks in between Matt and Kai, and they follow her, going forward into the dark forest.

Stefan screams, his mouth opening wide. Damon could feel the pain too, but he figured it was all over. There was nothing he could do. He is angry. He is_ so_ angry. But what will that do now? It will just make the situation worse.

Especially since Matt soaked the ropes in more vervain, putting them in even more pain than before. Damon looked at Stefan's face. He looked like a true vampire, colorless and drained. Damon must have looked the same.

"Do you smell that?" Stefan asks Damon. He sniffs. Fiery smoke enters his nostrils and the fear rises to a panic. "Damon!"

"Stefan!" Damon screams, bringing Stefan's movements to a halt. Stefan could see that Damon was beginning to cry. He wore a conflicted look upon his face, and his stare fixates on the ground. "It doesn't look like we're going to make it…"

Stefan's lips tremble. "I know, Damon." He forces from his mouth. He could hardly speak.

"Stefan—"

"Me too… Damon, me too…"

Bonnie runs into her dorm. She gasps and smiles as she sees her best friends Caroline and Elena. They run to hug her in the middle of the dorm room.

"Where's Damon?" Elena asks.

Bonnie pulls away, opening her mouth to speak, but she didn't really know how to say it. She shakes her head in disbelief.

"He left," Bonnie tells her.

"What do you mean?" Elena questions.

"Well, apparently, from what Matt told me, Stefan and him went on a road trip… for what? I don't know…"

"And you just believe Matt?" Caroline asks, still hurt from when Matt threatened to kill her.

"Damon texted me, too…" Bonnie stands there in awe. Every time she thinks about the text she is in complete shock. It's not like Damon, but whatever it is, it must be important. She can't dwell on things she can't change. Not now. "I'll try to give him a call tomorrow."

"Me too." Elena says.


	13. Trust Me, I'm Hurting

Bonnie didn't sleep last night. She was so shocked at what had happen. It kept her up. Everything happened in a blur. She was healed. She got her magic back and murdered people. Came close to killing one of her childhood friends. Then, the entire place went up into flames from her doing.

She stands in the empty lobby of her dorm, brewing herself some coffee. As she turns around, moving towards the fireplace, she sees Kai. She glances at him, then sits on the sofa and curled up. Kai walks down the steps and stands behind the sofa across from Bonnie. Bonnie knew a look of sympathy when she seen one, and refused to look him in the eye for one second.

"Hey," Kai says, his voice sounding rough and exhausted. A few hours earlier wasn't the best time for him either, as he felt every single thing Bonnie did when she completed that spell. "I brought you a band-aid." Kai holds a band-aid out over the sofa.

"I don't want your band-aid," Bonnie says, standing up and going to get her coffee. Kai watches her in her slippers and robe, switching fast to the coffee maker. She pours herself a cup and turns around to take a sip. And before she tied her robe around her skinny waist, Kai shoots a look at the only item of clothing snugging her body. A long, pink shirt with a baby dinosaur on it. Looking down, he drops the band-aid onto the sofa.

Kai chuckles, nervously, placing his hands on the sofa and leaning forward. "Cute shirt."

Bonnie glances at him, her face emotionless and unexpressive, and her eyes avert away. She takes another sip, combing the lobby with her gaze and seeing the band-aid on the sofa. She purses her lips.

She can't help but feel that something isn't right. Along with how things turned out, this feeling is what nagged at her all night. It was like a spider on her skin, awakening fear in her bones, and shaking the skeptic mind inside her brain. She believes that something is wrong.

"You should probably sleep… long day ahead tomorrow." Kai circles the sofa to the side, until Bonnie stops him.

"Kai, would you just leave me alone?" Bonnie asks. She sips on her coffee and raises a brow at his confused look. He nods, doesn't say anything, and walks away. His feet felt like bricks as he walked away, because while Bonnie felt something was wrong, Kai knew what was wrong.

He took another longing look back. He never does this. It disgusts him that he was beginning to care about her feelings. A woman that would have tried to kill him had their lives not been connected.

Kai spins on his heel and sits himself on the nearby staircase. There's not far he can go, so he might as well stay as close as possible.

_Make sure she doesn't make anymore bad Bonnie decisions_, Kai thought.

"Damon, what the hell? Where are you? Something is wrong. I feel it…" Bonnie stops talking a minute, biting her bottom lip and looking down at the floor. "I don't know who to trust… and I just wish you were here and— you just left me. I wish you hadn't left me."

Bonnie hangs up the phone, tightening her grip around it as she brings it down to her side. She figures since Damon likes leaving voicemails, maybe he'll check his. He will see that she called and hear her voice and know how concerned and scared she is for him. But also how much he hurt her by leaving her in that place.

Bonnie walks out of the lobby area and into the hall seeing Kai. She folds her arms as he stands up abruptly.

"Oh, hey," Kai quickly says.

Bonnie looks at the floor, leaning on her hip. "I guess I shouldn't get too mad," She says, looking back up at him. "I mean, where can you go?"

"That's what I was thinking!"

"I'm going up to my dorm to try and sleep. Don't try anything stupid because I will know and I will hurt you. Even if that means I hurt myself."

Bonnie glares at him as she walks past him and up the stairs. Kai nods, sitting down hard on the staircase. His eyes roll to the top of his head as he sighs.

"Bitch…" Kai says to himself.

It was a tough night, and Bonnie just wanted some sleep. She sits on the edge of her bed and looks at her phone. 6:56 am.

A yawn leaves her mouth, and she climbs under her covers. Just as she closes her eyes that itch returns. That annoying little bug that masses itself throughout her body as feeling urges her to stay awake.

"Damn it," Bonnie says, knowing that she will not be able to sleep until she figures out what is going wrong. She crawls to the end of her bed and reaches down, grabbing her grimoire from the floor. Maybe whatever is bothering her has something to do with the spell.

She opens her grimoire to the pages of the powerful spell _Lotus Evictus_.

Bonnie begins speaking to herself, reading the spell aloud, "Trial one. Find a vessel and mark… Okay, done. Trial two. Emasculate the amulet's power— what the hell. I haven't did anything wrong."

Bonnie closes her grimoire and sets it on the side of her bed. She places her hand on her forehead, thinking its stress. She murdered three people tonight, and cursed one… the question ominously lurking around her is if it was all worth it. Was it? Did those people deserve it?

She didn't know what to think, or how to describe what happened tonight. She lays back on her bed and stares at the ceiling. Kept awoke by the constant feeling living inside her body.

Matt sprints out of his house, running straight to his truck. The old truck door swings open making a screeching noise. Matt hops inside, slams the door, and sticks the key in the ignition. He takes a deep breath to calm himself, but his anxiety is heightened. Some kind of control needs to be had though, or he will panic into oblivion.

His mouth agape. Shaky, quick breaths in and out of his thin lips. He whips his head back as he reverses out of his driveway. The gravel grinds against the treads of the tires and pops up as he pushes the gas hard.

Speeding down the road, he opens his phone and calls Lance. The road is dark and empty, but Matt's speed increases. The more anxious he gets, the faster he drives.

He hears Lance's voice through the phone and he takes a couple quick, relieved breaths.

_Thank God_, he thinks.

"Dude, you okay?" Lance asks through the phone after hearing the panicked breaths from Matt.

"No, I'm not alright!" Matt tells him. His eyes narrowed as he glared at the truck dashboard, picturing Lance going about this situation nonchalant like. Matt is terrified, and it brought him even more terror hearing Lance speak so calmly.

"Dude, calm down. I have it under control!" Lance tries to calm Matt, but there is too much in Matt's mind and environment. There is the chance that a deer could appear out of the forest and boom… just like that, Matt could be dead. Or, even worse, Bonnie finds out Damon and Stefan never went on a road trip. And he never texted her, and that Matt orchestrated the entire thing. She would flip… and, she'd probably never forgive him.

"The fire department is on their way!" Matt checks behind him, quickly, pressing the phone to his ear and leaning down as if someone around might hear him. "If I don't get Stefan and Damon—"

"Didn't I tell you I'm handling it?" Lance suavely says. Matt pushes his lips together, not sure to pissed or happy that Lance is calm and collected. Matt sighs.

"You were in there when the fire started, why didn't you follow procedure and put it out?" Matt's voice got louder and deeper. The anger was beginning to sit in.

"Because as I mourned the dead bodies of my friends, trying to give them proper burial, I found Sarah... Dude, she has these horrific burns going down her arm."

"What?" Matt loses his breath… Bonnie. It had to be Bonnie.

"She's still alive, dude."

Matt sighs in relief. Sarah did terrible things, but she didn't deserve to die. It did beg the question, especially in Matt's mind, why did Bonnie keep her alive? He doesn't expect Bonnie to tell him. Not after the things he pulled tonight.

"What is she doing now?" Matt asks.

"Somewhere in the forest… running."

"What do you mean?"

"I tried helping her, but she freaked out! I think she's seeing things."

"What?" Matt hears the sirens of the firetrucks in the distance. He looks behind him. "I think the fire department is close behind me, but—"

Matt gasps when he feels a hard impact on the front end and he faces front. He drops his phone as his smooth, brisk ride suddenly turns awry. His front tires bounce into the air and crash down. Matt swore loudly, immediately pressing the brakes, and turning the car off.

Lance's voice trails off, becoming inaudible as Matt closes his eyes and shakes his head back and forth.

"Please, be a deer…" Matt begs. "Please God… let it be a deer."

Matt opens his truck door and sees a pair of bloody legs wearing bloody boots sticking out from under his truck. He hurriedly gets back into the truck and closes the door.

Kai's knuckles hover over Bonnie's door. He couldn't take it anymore. He had to tell her. He had to confess what Matt did, and frankly, how he kept his mouth shut about it.

The knock is sudden and once off. A part of him didn't want to tell her, but another part of him did. He decided, for once, to let that loyal part of him show. It wasn't a staple quality of his. It just appeared out of nowhere. He remembers seeing Matt's face when he finally made his decision to choose what's best for Bonnie. Kai just thought, _Nobody should be able to dictate someone else's lives_.

Kai begins to speak aloud, "And if Bonnie wants to make bad decisions let her. She's the one that has to deal with the fallout."

Kai runs his fingers through his hair, embarrassed that he'd just talked to himself out loud.

He swallows, remembering what he is here to do. "Come on, Kai," he tells himself. "Just fucking do it."

Bonnie looks over, waking up her phone. It's officially morning, and she still hasn't fallen asleep. The lingering feeling began to eat at her like a parasite. She sits up in bed, trying to think of what to do.

"Hey," Caroline walks over to Bonnie's bed, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "You're up early."

"So are you," Bonnie replies. Bonnie's phone starts to ring and she picks it up. It's Matt. Bonnie ignores the phone call and tosses her phone onto the bed.

"Boy trouble?" Caroline asks, scooting in closer to Bonnie.

"You don't even know."

"Want to talk about it?" Caroline's brow raises. Her upper lip lifts from the bottom. Bonnie saw that Caroline could use a good talk. A normal conversation for once.

"It's too late, Caroline… or too early..." Bonnie stands, not real sure what she wanted to do. She sighs, patting her hands on her thighs. "I need to go for a walk."

As Bonnie leaves her dorm, she tells Caroline she'll be back later. She walks out of her dorm to surprisingly see Kai gone. But Bonnie isn't stupid. She knows he's around some corner just watching.

She walks into the bathroom and stops in front of a mirror. She stares at her battle scar, proud to call it that. Her hand reaches up to touch it and it stings. She turns on the faucet, running some cold water to run over the scar. She throws more water over her face to wake herself up.

Walking downstairs, Bonnie goes into the lobby area. It's still empty. Some students are passing in and out of the dorm, but none to stop. She looks at the sofa and sees the band-aid lying there. Picking it up, she opens it and presses it onto her scar. As proud as she is of it, it really needed to heal.

"Couldn't you have used any other band-aid?" Kai's voice startles Bonnie, and he almost got magic slammed into the wall.

"Don't do that!" Bonnie yells.

"Sorry," Kai shrugs. He looks down at his white washed jeans and exhales. "Bonnie, I have something to tell you."

Bonnie raises one eyebrow at him. "Make it fast."

"It'll be hard with that incriminating look you're giving me."

Bonnie smiles, teasingly. "Look, I don't care what you have to tell me."

Bonnie moves past Kai and Kai shuts his eyes tight. He balls his fists at his sides. His cheeks begin to burn, and in an instant he finds himself almost breathless. He turns around, looking at Bonnie's backside, and says: "It's about Damon."

Bonnie stops in her tracks. That feeling she's been experiencing all night intensifies as she turns around and faces Kai. He looked concerned and that kind of scared Bonnie.

"Kai, what is going on?" She demanded he tell. He sighs again and takes a step closer to Bonnie, neglecting to look her in the eye.

"Damon and Stefan didn't go on a road trip," Bonnie's mouth drops as Kai's words left his mouth. She felt so lost and so confused. She hadn't known who to believe or who to trust in. Then, Kai says this?

"So… I'm so confused. Who's telling the truth then?" Bonnie asks.

Kai inhales. "I am!"

"So, you're telling me this entire time—"

"This entire time Matt has been lying to you. He thinks he's doing the right thing…"

Kai continued explaining to Bonnie everything that went down. She couldn't believe that her enemy was the one trying to be upfront and honest with her. Her eyes were compressed into thin veils of disillusionment… _Kai?_ She thought. _And Matt?_

It wasn't anger. Not anymore. She stumbled upon a new feeling— opening itself inside of Bonnie and suffocating her viscera.

"That's why he's been trying to call me," Bonnie begins telling Kai, "If this is true…"

Bonnie's head just shakes, and her bottom lip shifts out as images of Matt's heart tearing from his chest pleasures her mind.

"You know how much I love a good bloodbath," Kai replies. "Let's head back to the place."

Bonnie nods, turning around and walking out of the dorm. Kai follows her.

Bonnie and Kai step out of her car. They exchange looks, and after studying his face a bit, she looks away. Kai watches her walk around the front of her car and enter the forest, zipping her jacket up. He presses his palms together and interlocks his fingers, pressing the indexes up to his lips.

"Oh boy…" He whispers to himself. "This is going to be good."

Bonnie could smell the fire. The building is still burning. A quiet forest fire ripping nature to shreds as it grows. Bonnie could relate.

"This is crazy," Kai says, catching up to Bonnie. Her focus stays ahead. In front of her. Where it should always be. "The last time—"

"Shut up, Kai." Bonnie says plainly. Kai takes a look at her, seeing that determined and focused look in her eyes. His head turns, and he looks at the dark night before him.

They continue moving through the forest. Bonnie's pace quickening and Kai trying to keep up. She's so baffled, being out here again. Her plan was to move away and never look back, yet here she is, getting dragged into more problems. She couldn't fight this feeling though. When Kai brought it up to her, she knew this was it. He may have been telling the truth. Why else would he bring her out here?

Kai stuffs his hands into his pockets. A loop of conflicted feelings rests inside his body. He regrets telling Bonnie, but then again, he feels good about it. He does not like that he feels good about it, but he can't help what he feels.

Just like Bonnie couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong, Kai can't shake the feeling that he wanted to tell her.

The fire lit Bonnie and Kai's faces. Amazement engrossed Kai's face and his brow twitched upward, a smile spreading across his snowflake face. Her lips parted as she stared at what she'd done. The fire's colors blending in with her light melanin.

She burst into a sprint.

"Bonnie!" Kai called out to her. He chases after her. She stops the fire from blocking the entrance and runs through.

As she turns down the hall, Kai grabs her and she falls to the ground, as energy leaves her body unwillingly.

Kai eyes search all over Bonnie's body. She held her wrist, glaring at him with contempt. His mouth hung open and Bonnie couldn't deny seeing it. Remorse.

"Bonnie, I—" Kai tries to explain himself, but he doesn't know what to say. Being linked doesn't mean she's immune to his powers. It just makes it more difficult to be around each other.

"Just stay away from me…" Bonnie meant it as she stands. And she wanted to leave it at that, but when she closed her eyes, the words kept flowing: "Just go outside and wait or something. I'll be fine."

Kai's head dropped down. The way Bonnie looked at him before she left. A look that crashed into him like a tornado and tore through him, ravaging his mind and dizzying his bones. That look left him stranded in his step.

Bonnie storms down the hall, rubbing her wrist. Knowing that Kai could siphon her magic still was troubling. It was something she couldn't think about now. Not as she sprinted between trails of fire to find Stefan and Damon.

She checks every room. The one with the girl that Bonnie shot an arrow into. The room that held the dead boy with the arrow between his eyes. She even came across the one in the hallway. His mouth wide open. He died in a horrified expression; unable to breath.

Bonnie turns away and walks back down the hall. She steps over the girl's body, heading to the exit. She stands at the door, attempting to erase what she did. Suddenly, flames rose in front of her and lit her face like a candle in a dark room. She steps out of the room and closes the door.

Kai sits on the ground outside of the building. His head is down, until he hears sirens. Quickly, he stands and looks around. He sees nothing, but hears the sound of those sirens all too well. They blared into his eardrums and, not wasting any time, he goes inside to find Bonnie.

Bonnie busts down a door with her magic, frustrated. She hears Kai calling her name and she steps out of the room.

"Did you lie to me?" Bonnie asks.

"We don't have time to fight. I think the cops are coming."

"Don't change the subject. You said they were here!"

"Ugh! Just follow me."

Kai opens the door to the room Damon and Stefan were being held in. Bonnie walks in, seeing two ropes dangling from the ceiling. She notices two stools under the ropes. Kai places his hand on his head, distraught at the sight of nothing.

"This is it, Bonnie," Kai says. His eyes were wide; fear swam inside his pupils. "I swear."

"Well, where are they?" The inflection in her voice rose to an extreme high. "I am so sick of being lied to!" She marches over to Kai as she yells at him. "I am tired of being duped and betrayed by people that say they care about me!"

"Don't yell at me! I'm not one of those people!"

The two of them glare at each other, finding themselves persuaded by anger. Not with each other, but with themselves.

Bonnie's phone rings, breaking the awkward tension resounding in the room. The walls had it, the floors had it, and they had it.

"Hello," Bonnie answers the phone dryly. It is Matt.

"Bonnie…" Matt's voice breaks and he sobs. "Please, I need your help."


	14. Forget

As the firetrucks siren comes closer, Matt drags Sarah's body out from under his truck. He pulls her body into the bushes and her body rolls into the ditch. He steps out onto the street, staring at her in shock.

He_ hit_ her. In his rush to save his plan from falling apart, he ran his truck into Sarah and she smashed to the ground. He can still feel the thud, like hitting a brick wall, pulsate in his veins as nerves shook his state. He's spiraling.

He sees the firetruck sirens red and white lights as they come close. A breath sucks in between his teeth. He shut his eyes tight, submerging his fingers into his soft, vanilla hair.

Stepping onto the pavement, Bonnie looked to her left to see Matt. She stood only a few feet from him, yet he didn't seem to hear her footstep. Her lips pull apart. She began to say something, but retracted. Instead, she watches him as he drowns in some sort of anxiety. She walks towards him slowly, not removing her gaze from his fearful face.

"Matt, where are Stefan and Damon?" Bonnie asks as she steps closer to him. Matt's head swivels to Bonnie's movements, her steps echoing off of the cold pavement and masking the deep huffs of his breath.

His head starts shaking. "I… What?" Matt says. His head leans towards her and his eyes thin as if he didn't understand the question. And for a second, he didn't. Stefan and Damon was not his focus. Sarah's dead, frail body lying conspicuously in the ditch stirred his mind.

"Damon and Stefan, Matt… What did you do?" Bonnie stops in front of him, staring at him in contempt. Kai walked up next to her, his head slowly tilting towards her. He glares at Matt.

"Wait…" Matt says, his arms slowly falling to his sides. His face cripples into ferocity, aiming his fury at Kai, when he realizes what Kai did. "So, you say you didn't want to be a part of it, but you go and insert yourself into it anyway?"

Matt tries to push Bonnie aside to stand in Kai's face, but Bonnie removes his arm and pushes him away. Matt faces her, meeting her eyes and reflecting her serious expression.

"Stefan and Damon don't matter." He tells her, his face inching towards her.

Bonnie's brow rose. "Are you serious?" She pushes Matt, using her power, and he slams against the front of his truck.

She gasps. And as Matt picks himself up, the firetruck sirens become clearer and clearer. The red and white lights removing the veil of darkness from the forest. From the streets. From the truck. And from themselves.

Bonnie cover her mouth, taking a step back and stumbling into Kai.

"It's just blood, B," Kai says to her, helping her stand back up.

"But whose blood?" Bonnie says. She looks at Matt and waits for an answer. "Whose blood, Matt?!" Her voice rises.

"It's Sarah's! I hit her, I didn't see her coming, and I hit her. That's why I called…"

Bonnie's face is fixed in amazement. Not an amazement of a gorgeous sunset sky or a breathtaking valley. But one of violent energies, condensing onto an innocuous field.

"She's dead?" Bonnie asks. "Where?"

Matt turns around, concentrating his eyes on the firetruck. His breathing speeds up as he thinks of what to say or do. Bonnie swallows, feeling the same. She didn't know what to focus on: Sarah's death, Stefan and Damon missing, or being in this situation while authorities are around.

"Hey," a voice from the firetruck says, "What're you all doing out here?"

Bonnie steps around the side of the truck, seeing the fireman walking towards her.

"Hi," Bonnie says. "Our truck broke down and… we just got it started working again."

The fireman looks at Bonnie up and down. "Oh, yeah?"

"That's where you're headed, right? To a fire? We just drove past it, it's about to burn down the entire forest!"

The fireman looks at Bonnie, then at Matt and Kai, and sighs. "Look, just be safe, alright? It's a lot of crazies out here."

The fireman runs back to his firetruck and drives past the three of them.

Bonnie takes a deep breath, closing her eyes. She leans against the side of his truck, suffocating in the realization of being sucked right back into the reality she was previously out of.

She turns around and looks at Matt, who's standing by the hood of the truck and waiting for her to say something. A feeling warms her body. One that only lasted for a moment. She shuts her eyes tight, shutting out the memorable seconds of conversation with the fireman and knowing how good it felt to be out of the reality she is in now. She wished it never left.

"Where is her body?" Bonnie asks. The words melt into Matt's ears like lava. He points to the right of him and Bonnie's eyes move to the ditch. She walks over, and even though it was dark, she knew her body was gone. "Matt, are you lying to me?"

"No," Matt walks over.

"Because you've lied and lied—"

"I'm not lying! She was right here…" Matt's eyes swell with water. Not even he could tell if it was joy or terror or a combination of both. His bottom lip fell and trembled.

"This is not good," Bonnie says to herself as Matt walks into the ditch to find Sarah's body. She watched as he searched and she thought about Sarah. The spell is going to go awry now. Matt killing Sarah threw the spell off of its equilibrium. Bonnie can't even predict what will happen next. Her gut feeling did give her a hint at something though.

This wasn't going to end well. Not for anyone.

Then there's Stefan and Damon… she has to

Matt screams and Bonnie looks over. Kai sprints to Bonnie and looks on with her at Sarah, who's lifting Matt in the air by his neck. He latches onto to Sarah's hand and tries to pull it off, but she was too strong. Bonnie could sense the magical energy pushing through her arm.

"Awake," says Sarah, in a voice that sounded off like a husky screech.

Matt's eyes turn gray and his mouth widens in a horror. The skin on his lip tears. Blood erupts between the thin, ruptured lines and Bonnie raises her hand at Sarah.

"Motus!" Bonnie shouts and Sarah drops Matt. She stumbles back. "Get Matt into the truck!" Bonnie yells to Kai.

Bonnie steps towards Sarah and Kai sprints over to Matt, who is shaking uncontrollably. His eyes were still a liquid gray and Kai flinched back as he met them. Matt's head swiveled, his eyes aiming at Kai. Kai's brow furrowed at his movements, and he looked to Bonnie, unsure of what to do. His mouth parts as he looked back at Matt, whose lids were slowly closing over his eyes.

"Matt!" Kai screams. He slaps Matt's cheek. "Get up!"

Matt didn't budge. Kai looks back over at Bonnie and sees her flying back to Matt's truck. She slams into it, leaving a dent as she falls to the ground.

In shock, Kai got in front of Matt's head and grabs under his shoulders. He drags Matt across the slimy mud of the ditch and towards the truck. His eyes grow wide when he sees Sarah marching towards him.

Bonnie picks herself back up, breathing deeply out of her mouth. Her head still hanging and gaze fixed on the ground, her head slowly rises, as does her fierce glare, and she sees the same walking eruptive corpse massed in its own blood as Kai does.

Bonnie runs to shield Matt and Kai. She places her arm out in the front of them. Kai puts his hand on the car door.

"Get in," Bonnie says, the tiny green dots in their bulbs concentrating on the entity coming towards her. It wasn't Sarah anymore. It was the quake underneath a smokescreen of sulfur.

"But—" Kai begins to plead, although he knew Bonnie wouldn't let him. Deep inside his insidious mind, his instinct sparked and he knew Bonnie would stop him.

"Kai!" Her voice breached annoyance as she faced him, screaming at him. Her eyes moved to Matt's closed lids and a hellish warmth filled her body. She turns and looks at the vicious creature standing before her, and she realized that warmth arose from a place of care.

Kai opens the truck door and, taking a deep breath, places his hands under Matt and lifts. An agonizing grunt leaves his body. He looks at Bonnie for help, forgetting that she was in the middle of a battle with a relentless monster.

"What are you?" Bonnie says to Sarah's body, before twisting its knee inside out with her magic. It collapses to one knee, then its arm flies up. Bonnie flies back again, its magic pushing her into the air. She hits the truck again and slides down it.

Kai over at Bonnie, who is holding her stomach.

"Bonnie," He crouches next to her, desperation in his voice. Bonnie's eyes averted to the side, seeing Kai's face inches from hers.

Bonnie's lips tighten as determination enters her veins. She lifts her arm up at the monster, her mouth dropping to exhale. Kai's jaw tightens, his eyes thin, and he turns to face Sarah's body. He stands and lifts his arm also.

"Back off!" He screams with an intensity that reveals itself through his flushed face. Bonnie and Kai's combined magic sends Sarah's body flinging into the darkness of the forest. Bonnie sighs as the corner of her lips began to stretch, that is until Kai opens his mouth.

"Damn, we did that, huh?" Kai says to her. Bonnie's eyes roll as she uses the truck to pick herself back up.

"Let's just get out of here before she comes back," Bonnie replies. She looks into the forest one last time before circling around the truck and getting into the passenger seat. She shuts the door just as Kai is putting Matt into the backseat.

Lightly, Kai lies Matt's head on the seat. He takes a look at Bonnie, who is staring at the dashboard in front of her. The look in her eyes shocked him, because for once, he understood her. Her eyes were wide, glowing in shock and confusion.

"What do you want to do?" Kai says, looking back anxiously at the forest then back to Bonnie. Bonnie's head shifted to Kai, then back.

"I don't know," Bonnie says. Her voice tuned out like a melancholic violin.

"Who's it going to be? Damon or Matt?" Kai says.

The quiet air entered in from Bonnie's window and she turned its way.

Damon is out there somewhere. If only she knew where. If only she knew what. She could confidently assess what to do in this situation. She could feel Kai's eyes placid on the back of her head, feeling like a stranger's eye in the crowd. The time to make a decision was closing… or maybe it just felt like time itself was closing. She turns and looks at the front again, seeing Kai do the same in the peripheral.

"Looks like you've made your decision," Kai says. He starts the truck and it rumbles the both of them.

Bonnie blinks several times. She takes a deep breath as Kai starts driving down the road.

"Just drive fast," she tells him quickly.

"No problem."

Bonnie turns around to check Matt's pulse. He's still breathing, which means he's still alive. She only wishes he was conscious so she could ask him what happened to Stefan and Damon, and maybe she'd be able to search for him. But, searching for Damon would be like searching for smoke in a dark room. How can you locate someone who can inevitably be anywhere?

Bright car lights show in the distance, blinding the both of them.

"Is this guy serious?" Kai says. He honks the horn for a long time, and he continues even after the car has passed. Bonnie hit him so he'd stop, widening her eyes at him. He retaliates by hitting her back. Her brow furrows as she glares at his witful gawk, then hits him back. Kai responds with another tap of his forehand, and her arm moves in for another, but he catches her arm.

Bonnie snatches her arm away and looks out the window. "Just get us to the damn hospital," Bonnie says.

"One slip up. That's all it takes," Damon says.

"Good thing I won't," Lance replies.

Lance drags Damon through forest. He kept Damon a considerable amount away, using a pole with a rope attached to it. The rope, soaked entirely in vervain, is wrapped loosely around Damon's neck. Red burns and scars are inscribed on the flesh of his neck.

Lance yanks Damon to the right and smirks, chuckling playfully.

"Hey!" Damon grunts. He glares at Lance, his eyes weak from the sizzling pain in his neck to the constant numb friction of the rope tying his hands together. The vervain didn't help there either.

"I'm just trying to have a little fun," Lance suggests. Damon shakes his head. He swallows, finding himself once again torn; in a place of misery and massacre.

Misery is following Lance's orders and willingly dying at the hands of a mediocre hunter. Reveling inside his mind and feeding into the massacre is sinking his fangs into the one who controls him. Into the one who is leading him into his own death. He'd know what to do. He'd tear the boy limb from limb and scatter his arms up the river and dig a hole to bury his legs in. His corpse would be nailed to a tree and his head is the main course. As Damon closes his eyes, sweat dripping in between his brow, he can taste the warm blood on the tip of his lips.

He inhales the cold air, imagining the sweet smell of blood enter his nostrils, and just as he does that his best friend's smile decides to reside in his miserable mind.

"Ahh!" Damon screams as Lance yanks him to the ground. His face smashes down into the dirt and Lance starts to drag him.

"Sorry."

Damon chuckles. He tries to hide his anger under a guise of humor. "I just imagined what I'd do to you and it made me feel so good…" Damon's voice rises from calmness to a maniacal insanity, and the blue whirlwinds in his eyes dance.

"Oh, yeah?" Lance responds, playing along.

"Yeah," Dirt and grime enter Damon's mouth as he speaks against the ground. He could feel the dirt grind on his teeth as he spoke. "It helped me come to a crucial decision on how I would handle the next few moments."

"I guess I'll entertain you."

"Misery or massacre?" Damon asks him. Lance says nothing. Just drags Damon's body like it was nothing. Like Damon was the scum of the earth or the dirt filled gum on the bottom of his shoe.

Lance pulled harder. The rope started to break into Damon's skin, revealing the bloody, dark insides of his throat. Damon's mouth opened in pain, but nothing left his mouth. Then, he said in a bold and hoarse voice:

"Misery or massacre?!"

"Massacre, you brainless tool!"

A tight grin spreads across Damon's chiseled face. He digs his shoes into ground, moving all of his strength to his feet. Lance felt Damon's body getting heavier. He looks over Damon's body, seeing immediately what Damon was doing, and he pulled harder.

Damon pulled his neck and began to scream as they started a peculiar tug-o-war of their own.

Lance took a step back and tugged, inching Damon closer to his way. The pain went up and down Damon's neck, but he kept his down and pulled. He knew the danger. He knew he could snap his neck. He didn't care. Lance chose this. He chose massacre. And massacre is what it will be.

Lance took another step back, tripping on an uprooted tree root and falling back. His grip loosened as he fell and Damon pulls his neck back. He felt a crack in his spine and grunted, pulling again. Lance released the pole. Fear crossed over his face as he crawled back from Damon.

Damon heaves, his bottom lip jutting out and revealing his teeth. He could hear Lance trying to get away, and that forced Damon to move quicker. He slugged his way onto his feet and ran after Lance, his hands still tied behind his back.

The pole bounced on his back and as the gap closed between him and Lance, he swung the pole around with his neck and clocked Lance in the head. Lance stumbled off to the side.

"Stefan!" Damon shouts, looking ahead at the car parked on the side of the road. He sprints to it, bashing into the passenger door. He hurries and stands, calling Stefan's name. Pounds enter his ears and he sees it's coming from the trunk. "Hold on, Stefan, I'm going to get you out of there!"

Damon runs to the trunk, stumbling and falling onto it. He tries to lift himself back up, and starts to slowly, but feels a stake driven into his shoulder and a palm planting him right back onto the trunk. Damon feels the stake leaves his body and he shakes. Lance pulls back, ready to drive the stake through Damon's heart. Damon throws his body back just as Lance drives the stake down, and it pierces his lower back. He throws his head back at Lance's face, and Lance stumbles back.

Damon falls onto his face as the accumulating pain of the rope and the stake in his back leaves him close to incapacitated. The moistness of the ground makes his skin coil. The smeared dirt on his face moistens and turns muddy. Damon blinks.

Massacre. He wonders what Bonnie would have done. What she would have chosen.

He can feel the corners of his eyelids drag against the bumpy pavement as they shut, and the evasive thought of Bonnie choosing massacre flashes in his mind.

Yet still, in the midst of all this suffering, he didn't know what Bonnie would have chosen.

Damon bites his bottom lip and rolls onto his side, the tip of the wood spreading unbearable discomfort all over his back. He doesn't let it stop him. He bends his knees slowly, cranking his neck down and ignoring the burn of the rope along his tender skin. Ignoring was one of his only choices in this predicament.

As he stops to give his body relief from the aching pain, he thinks about Lance taking the pole and dragging Damon to his demise. Hooking his would-be transient body to the car while Stefan is locked in the truck with a large amount of vervain. Then, he'd drive down the road and Damon's body would bounce and scrape against the pavement until he died.

This was only in his imagination, but Damon thought about lying there. Leaving Stefan and Elena. He even thought of Bonnie, and there was no way he could let her go.

He lifts his body from the ground and sits on his knees. His chest heaves in and out while his mouth hangs open. One of his legs whips up, leaving him on one knee. His eyes shut tight as he lifts off the ground, the beacon of agony lodged into his back urging him to scream into the air.

He wobbles in his stance, turning his head around and looking at Lance's unconscious body. His head swivels around to the other side, a strained and passionate look fills out his oceanic balls as they stare at the trunk of the car. He couldn't leave his brother.

Damon's wrists fidgeted in the tight vervain rope around them. He shut his eyes. The corner of his mouth frets outward. His brow furrows. He breaks into a furious grin, clenching his teeth together, and he pulls his wrists in opposite directions. He forces them into the rope; smoke arising from the friction and into the air like smoke from a fire pit.

His mouth stretches open reacting to the affliction on his wrists. A small groan leaves his mouth and he twists his wrists. He looks back trying to see them and pulls even harder. He had to rescue Stefan. He couldn't just leave him. And as those thoughts move through his mind, the rope breaks on his wrists and he lets out a sigh of solace. He wraps his hands around the stake driven into his back and pulls it out. The sound of it clinking the pavement giving him relief. Bringing his hands in front of him, he sees the bloody and lacerated wounds around his wrists. The vervain still stung. The sizzle and clack bubbling in the cracks of the wound. He eyes slowly rise as his sense ring in his head.

He spins around fast, enclosing his hand around Lance's neck.

"You're done," Damon says to him. His nose wrinkles as a debilitating look of malignance washes his face.

Lance smirks and pushes his palm into Damon's stomach. A beeping noise comes from his hand and Damon looks down, seeing a vervain bomb tick to zero in Lance's hand. Damon pushes off Lance and the bomb flies up between them. It explodes sending Damon back and tumbling into the forest.

He stands up against the tree, recovering fast from the explosion. The redness on his face slowly begins to dissipate as he looks towards the road in disgust. He lunges forward, but slips off a cliff. His chest crashes onto the edge and his right hand is digging its fingers into the bark of the tree. Inch by inch, he moved down and he quickly realized there was nothing he could get a good grip on.

His grip on the tree loosened and he dropped a few feet down onto the tip of a hill. He rolled down, dodging trees and rolling over bushes out of luck. His body tumbled quickly down the incline and came to a stop as he stopped before a river. He rolls onto his side and looking up and down the river; the smell of freshwater and mist enter his nostrils.

He stands slowly and looks up the hill, sprinting up the incline and grabbing onto a tree. It was steep and would take more than his own vampire strength to climb. He had to get to his brother, and he didn't have much time. The bomb had to have taken Lance out, or at least incapacitated him for awhile.

Damon uses the tree to pull himself up and his legs follow. He falls forward, stopping himself from hitting the ground with his hands. He mountain climbs up, moving fast and swift and not relenting to stop.

As he reaches the top and climbs up onto the ground. He stands, bent over. He head slowly rises up and sees the road. He looks left and right, back and forth, in quick motions as his lips part. He starts into a dash to the road and finds nothing. No sight of the car and no sight of Lance, which means Stefan is gone.

Damon's fingers slide across his forehead as an aching, growing warmth passes over him. Could Stefan be dead?

"Drive faster!" Bonnie screams at Kai. She turns her desperate gaze to Matt, who is shaking in the backseat. His eyes turn a glossy gray and he stops.

Bonnie could hear her heartbeat quickly as a silence blankets over the two of them. Bonnie looks at Kai and Kai looks over, then back to the road.

"What happened?" Kai asks.

"He stopped shaking." Bonnie answers. She focuses back on Matt and purses her lips. She reaches for his face and her fingers graze his cheek. A sliver of blood pushes out of the corner of Matt's mouth and falls down his cheek. It passes over Bonnie's fingers and she pulls away.

Her breathing starts to escalate and she couldn't reason why: because she needed him to find Damon or because one of her best friend's looks close to death. She couldn't reason why and she didn't want to. The only thing she knew to be true was that she needed him to be okay.

The blood continued to pour down, greater and greater by the minute. Her eyes grew in alarm.

"Kai!" Bonnie screams. Her voice breaks. Her face crumbles into a sob as the shaking on Matt starts again. "Kai, please. Drive fast, I don't know what to do!"

"Well, I don't want to kill us!" Kai says, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Just get us to the hospital…" Bonnie sucks in a breath to keep the tears at bay. She watches over Matt's body, holding him down to stop him from shaking.

She'd tried to stop the shaking with her magic, but nothing would work. He just kept shaking and shaking, and his eyes would glow like the moon in the sky. Everything she tried would not work.

A light passes over Matt's face and the inside of the truck. Bonnie looks out of the window to see streetlights and she begins to smile. A wide smile that forces her eyes to crease.

"We're almost there, Bonnie," Kai says. "Just hold on."

"Don't tell me that! Tell him!"

"Hey, Matt, um, we're halfway there."

Bonnie finds Matt's hand and holds onto it.

Kai continues, "So, don't die back there? Alright?"

The shaking stops. Bonnie sits back into her seat, still holding Matt's hand. She looks out the windshield, staring at the headlights and streetlights entering the truck.

"It's so nice to see some city lights," Bonnie says before sighing. She looks back at Matt.

"Are you doing okay?" Kai asks her. Bonnie faces front, staring down at her feet.

She wasn't. "I just wish I didn't have to think," Bonnie shakes her head. "This is all my fault."

Kai turns to look at her. "How?"

"Sarah was supposed to be the beginning of a spell I was working on… then Matt killed her, and the fundamentals of the spell got twisted."

"Well… that sounds like it's Matt's fault then!"

"Kai, I started this. Way back in 1994 when I was alone…"

Kai sighs. His thoughts spurred into regret. Regret for Bonnie, for leaving her alone, and in absolute isolation. His eyes wandered the road as he drove.

Loneliness is the worst. Kai knew firsthand. And he let Bonnie suffer the exact torment as he did, and it could have led to this. Maybe it wasn't Bonnie's or Matt's fault… maybe it was his. Maybe it wasn't anyone's.

He turns into the hospital parking lot and shakes his head quick from side to side. He doesn't want to think about it. He shakes again like he's getting the chills, getting Bonnie's attention. She furrows her brow in disgust at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bonnie asks.

"Thoughts. I hate them. Natural, uncensored and shameless peeves just popping in your mind on a flashing banner."

Bonnie smirks. "Hm. But don't you like uncensored?"

"Only when it's coming out of my mouth." He smiles and his eyes narrow as they glance at Bonnie's. As he turns back to the front, she stares at him.

Matt's body jerks just as Kai's car pulls in front of the Whitmore hospital emergency entrance.

"Hurry!" Bonnie says as she gets out of the car and sprints to the door.


	15. The Last Day On Earth

The clock's tick echoes in the dry air. Little balls of dust float through the air; baking under the dim ceiling light. Her eyes jerk up and scan the lobby while her head remains low.

Time seemed to stand still for her. The hard, blue and red dotted carpet sounded like sandpaper as her feet shuffled atop it. Bonnie looks down at her fingers. Her thumbnail scrapes the top of her middle finger over and over again. Repeating became a constant as she sat in the lobby. It was calming, yet it distanced her from the situation.

She would blink and suddenly, remember nothing. She would forget why she was here. But only for a millisecond. A flash of a moment. Like the shutter of a camera, she would feel off balance. Small. Little.

This never lasted long. The elusiveness taking her captive, swallowing her soul until it's devoid, was transient. A temporary flit in the stillness of time. And it only started now.

Rushing Matt in was overwhelming. Nurses pushing her away, touching her arms and chest and stomach and neck. She shouted at Matt and tried to reassure him, because they locked eyes for a moment and she could see it. His desperation swelling inside the blue, watery eyes. His fear. His pain.

Kai pulled her away from the commotion and into the quiet, quaint lobby. It's low glowing, yellow light forcing Bonnie to succumb to its numbing effect. He sat her in a chair and talked to her.

Bonnie didn't hear a thing. She stared down at her fingers, twirling like dancers in her lap, as his lips moved.

That was when it first happened. The first time she felt displaced from her own body.

"Bonnie?" Bonnie gasps. She looks up and sees Elena. Before Bonnie knew it, she was standing up and embracing Elena. The sobs trickled in slowly, then all it once, Bonnie could hear Elena's weeps in her ear:

"I tried to heal him, Bonnie," Elena sobs. Bonnie's eyes downcast, her hug tightening around Elena. "It wouldn't work. He just rejected it, and his body," Elena's voice gained momentum and a tear rushes down Bonnie's face. She sucks her lips in. "His body just started shaking and… and…"

Bonnie buries her head into Elena's neck. Her shoulders bounce as the realization of change flows into her bones. Everything is changing and it was her fault.

Bonnie's head rises from Elena's shoulder and she steps back, wiping the tears from her face.

"I'm sorry," Bonnie says after taking a deep breath. She stares at the floor. She stares too long because the colors begin to blur her vision.

She feels a hand on her face and her eyes snap up. "It's not your fault, Bonnie."

Bonnie wondered what Elena would say if she knew the whole truth. If she knew how truly conflicting all of this was. Bonnie turns around and walks back to her chair, sitting.

"It is," Bonnie nods, looking at Elena. "It is my fault. I did this."

Elena sniffles, furrowing her brow. Her head slowly shakes and her mouth drops, but not a word leaves her mouth. She just stands there and looks at Bonnie.

Bonnie doesn't look away. She purses her lips and blinks, then nods again.

Elena rubs her hand on her forehead, sighing. She takes a few steps toward a chair across from Bonnie and runs her hand through her hair. The white wall in front of her seemed to capture her, just as the floor once again enticed Bonnie.

"So, he rejected your blood?" Bonnie's voice was close to a whisper.

Elena lowered into the chair, her body angled away from Bonnie. "Yeah," Elena's voice scratched against her throat, evoking a raspy sound. She clears her throat. "Bonnie, what did you mean that this is your fault?"

Bonnie looks up at Elena's face. Her brown hair lay behind her ear, which wasn't as straight as it usually is. Like it hadn't been combed in days. She noticed Elena still staring at the white wall and Bonnie looked along too.

Her lips pull apart slowly.

Bonnie would usually cut straight to the point, but for some reason, she couldn't allow herself to do that. She beat around the bush until the truth unveiled itself.

"Damon was annoying and harsh and never had any bounds for personal space…" The words left Bonnie's mouth like fire trailing through the woods.

_1994_

"There is no one, there will never be anyone, so stop trying!" Damon yells, his mouth open wide. He pours some Bonnie rolls her eyes and flips the page of her grimoire, glaring him in the eye.

"I'll do what I want." Bonnie says as she analyzes a page, her eyes slowly drifting down it. She places her finger on the page, narrowing her eyes.

"Which is aggravating," He flips a pancake onto a plate, the sun shining through the windows behind him. Bonnie averts her eyes up at his red and white plaid shirt. "I don't know why you don't just listen to me!"

"Because you just yell."

Damon picks up the two plates and swiftly walks to the dining table. "I don't yell. I speak loudly."

Bonnie spins on the stool and hops off, walking over to the table with her grimoire in hand. "Oh, you yell. You're just a big kid."

Damon sits a plate down in front of Bonnie as she gets settled into her chair. His eyes move to the back of his head at her comment.

"You whine and kick and scream when you don't get your way," Bonnie says, looking at the vampcakes sitting in front of her. Her mouth opens a bit as a familiar feeling of fire rumbles through her bones. Her lips smash together as she glares at him.

He sits, smiling cheek to cheek.

"You know—"

"I know." Damon calmly says. Bonnie met his look and the glare began to fade into a kinder glance. Her mouth relaxes and she nervously looks down at her vampcakes. A low chuckle releases from her mouth.

Her brow raises. "Bon appetite," She says.

Damon takes a bite of his pancake, then sets his fork down and looks at Bonnie quizzically.

"Remember when I taught you about throwing knives?" Damon asks.

"Sure, yeah, why?"

"I didn't really know what I was talking about."

Bonnie's head drops as her gaze turns into an intense fury. At the same time she felt this, she also felt very grateful. He was a good teacher, aggravating as usual, but that's just because that's who Damon is around her. That aside, she could confidently say she knows knife throwing.

Silence invades their conversation. The sound of silverware clanking the plates and old wilted paper being turned over filled the space between them.

Damon stands and walks to the fireplace. He lights it.

"How often do you think they think of us?" Damon asks. Bonnie puts her elbow on the table and looks at him standing in front of the fireplace. She inhales. He always finds some way to bring home back up, making any room, area, space inexplicably depressing. It was hard to think of home, for the both of them.

Damon used to say how never wanted to talk about it, yet he'd stay in his room for hours and hours. He'd pace in front of Elena's doorstep, as if he's waiting for her to open the door. It left Bonnie to question how he truly felt. She would leave him alone. She would sit alone in her grams' house, and she would leave him alone.

She may have hated when he asked about home, because he made it no secret how much he hated her passion for getting back.

"I don't know," Bonnie replies. Damon's head moves to the side. He can see Bonnie staring at him in his peripheral. His arms fold and he looks at the fire again. A small scale hell compared to what he was living.

Each step he took in the beginning was like a step on vervain. It burned. It felt like hell to be away from home, from his brother, and Elena.

"Do you think she's forgotten about me?" Damon continues. Bonnie was surprised at his sudden need to talk. The chair scrapes against the ground as Bonnie stands. She walks up and stands next to him, the heat from the fire warming her body.

Damon knew something had changed since the beginning. Even though she didn't know it, Bonnie in some ways, somehow, carried him.

"Of course not," Bonnie places her hand on his back and he looks at her, his eyes thinning across his face.

And it was no secret that he also carried her.

Kai chased Bonnie throughout all of Mystic Falls high. It's been awhile since she sent Damon back to present time, and since then, she's kept herself away from Kai.

But he's found her. Now that he knows she has a way of getting home, he's found her and wants to hitch a ride back with her. She cannot let that happen. Not with his promises of getting revenge on his family and killing them all. The images flitter in her mind while she runs into the cafeteria, slamming the doors shut with her magic.

She shakes her head uncontrollably, murmuring: "No. I cannot let that happen."

Kai bangs on the cafeteria doors. Bonnie's eyes avert to the doors; a nervousness spreading over her body. She stumbles back into a table, her eyes glued to the doors, and her fingers rub the surface of the tables.

She remembers the four years she sat at these tables. The first two leaving a nostalgic touch of happiness, laughter, and joy. The last two, mostly, she wanted to forget. That's around when she learned she was a witch, and if she were being honest, she's still learning. It's nothing close to nostalgic. It's more of a palpable memory. Like she could touch it, because it seemed like yesterday the Salvatore's came into town.

Her fingers retract from the smooth surface. She didn't want to remember anymore. She shut it out and the bangs on the door suddenly were louder.

Her eyes grew as she looked at the doors again.

"Bonnie!" Kai's voice rumbled through the doors, "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to go home!"

"I'm not letting that happen, Kai!"

The banging stops. Bonnie takes a deep breath, a taste of nostalgia entering her mind again. She shuts it out. Because where there was good, there was bad. Where tears from the elated mind have fallen, blood rained down in the same places.

She turns and sprints past the table. She'd only think about getting home.

Looking around, she tries to find a way out. She sees a vent in the wall and she smiles. As she looks around for something to help her reach it, Kai bangs again. A loud clank, echoing the cafeteria walls. She wondered what he had. It made her heart pound faster that he might make it in. That she might be responsible for letting a person like Kai back into the real world.

She runs quickly to a vending machine and pushes it towards the vent. It moved slowly. Her body strength wasn't enough. She exhales and uses her magic to garner more strength. The machine screeches as it scrapes the floor and Bonnie shuts her eyes tight. She takes a step forward, the machine moving under the vent as her leg straightens out.

A deep breath of relief passes out of her mouth.

"I'm coming in!" Kai says, a trace of insanity hidden in his voice.

Bonnie grabs onto the machine, climbing up. Her legs scramble up as she latches onto the other side with her hand, pulling herself onto the top of the machine. Dusting herself off, she stands and looks at the vents.

There are four screws in each corner. Her hand hovers over the front of the vent and she uses her magic to make the screws burst out of their sockets. The vent falls onto the machine and in front of her feet.

Without looking back, she climbs into the narrow vent and begins navigating the system.

It was dark and dusty. Bonnie was sure she'd crawled through three or four spider webs. The air was hot and clammy. It was uncomfortable. She knew it would only be for a second, but it felt longer than that. She starts to cough as the dust climbs down her throat. She stops and holds her chest, trying to get the dust from her throat. It was like she was coughing up her esophagus.

She swallows, removing her hand from her chest and placing it on the metal surface. As she starts crawling again, she hears a voice:

"Bonnie?"

Her brow furrows in the darkness. "Damon?" She immediately replies. He was there to bring her home. Her eyes glowed; the green almost penetrating through the dark air. She continues to move, her speed quickening.

"Where are you?" Damon says. His voice was faint, but she was getting closer.

"I'm in the vents," She tries to raise her voice. "Kai's been chasing me. He knows I'm trying to get home."

"God, I swear that idiot has a deluded crush on you."

"Please, don't ever say that again." Bonnie sees a light up ahead. A vent. She crawls to it with excitement, looking through and seeing Damon in his all black. Black thermal. Black jeans. Black boots. A smile crossed her face unknowingly. He got reacquainted into his old life quickly.

The vent blasts open, her magic coming in handy once again, and Damon's neck twists around. He turns around, his eyes narrowed in an uncertain gaze. Bonnie's smile fades. Her lips stay parted. They look at each other like strangers with history, unsure of what should happen next.

Damon's eyes widen out. "I think he really does," Damon speaks, but Bonnie still stares at him. After a moment of watching his look ease into that same silly, annoyed expression she learned to love, she chuckles. A smile matches it as she says:

"I would never," Bonnie says with honest disgust as she tries to climb out of the vent and into the small classroom. Damon jogs over to help her.

He puts his hands on her upper arms and slowly pulls her out.

"Easy!" Bonnie says. Her hands slide down his arm and she feels his biceps fill out her palms. She loses her breath. She'd never been this close to him. Her hands land on the tops of his shoulders and only the particles of dust separated the two of them.

Both of them stop there awkward movements, stopped by there fixation on each other's eyes. Bonnie hangs half way out of the vent, swallowing and wondering what the hell she was doing. Damon's lips part as he looks at hers and a thought traipsed in his mind… He could hold her here all day if he wanted, if it meant he could look into her eyes.

"Are you going to help me down or just stare at me like a lone wolf?" Bonnie breaks the awkwardness, thinking of how hard it was escaping his enigmatic stare.

"You were staring too, Bon."

"No, I wasn't," Damon pulls Bonnie out of the vent.

"Like you'd seen a ghost," He says, slowly putting her on her feet. As she descended from the air to the floor, he watches her; his head tilting downward until he's staring down at her.

Maybe she had seen a ghost. At first. It seems like she hasn't seen him in years, and when they first touched that timespan seemed to have stretched even farther and the yearning to feel him grew stronger. She didn't want to let him go. He didn't want to let her go.

He steps away from her, feeling a feeling solely and exclusively emanating from Bonnie. A feeling he'd never experienced before with any other girl. Any other person. He steps away in fear, because there were things in the worldly continuum he'd rather not quake.

She looks down, nodding her head from nervousness. "So, when are we going home?"

Damon shrugs. "We have to wait. It took a lot of power for them to get me here… I cannot even imagine how much it will take to get us back."

"But were going home for sure?" This question has been patiently poised in the back of Bonnie's mind. She can't wait to get back. See Elena, Caroline, and Matt. Her best friends. And to be able to see Damon every day. If there's one thing she realized in 1994 all alone, it's how much she missed him. It was equally wrong and amazing and she loved it.

"Yes, we are," Damon says. Bonnie smiles widely, covering her mouth. Tears start to fall, but she takes a deep breath and stops them from coming.

"I miss them so much," Bonnie says, walking over to a desk and sitting. That hint of nostalgic creeps up her back and she looks at Damon. It goes away.

"They miss you, too," Damon replies, walking and sitting on the teacher's desk. His hands clasp in his lap as he looks down at the floor. "What are we going to do about, Kai?"

"Shit," Bonnie says. She couldn't bring Kai home with her. It would go against everything she stood for. Her love and protect of humanity would implode in her face if she agreed to let him come home. "Well, he's not going to stop until he gets what he wants."

"So, we'll make sure he doesn't make it out with us."

Bonnie nods. Her magic wouldn't hold the doors of the cafeteria for long, or Kai would try to find another way in.

"Hey, you still working on that big spell you always talk about?" Damon asks, pulling her from her thoughts.

"What spell?"

"Don't try to hide it. I know you are." Bonnie fidgets with her fingers on the desk. She was still working on that spell. A powerful, dark spell. "I don't get why you always need you have something to prove."

"I don't have anything to prove to anyone. And weren't you the one pushing me? Challenging me to get my magic back?"

"Yes! Because the both of us were sick of this place and wanted to get home!" There was a pause between them. "We both wanted to get home before we got sick of each other." He laughs. She laughs, her head tilting down and her bangs falling in front of her.

"So, you admit it was for selfish reasons?"

"Ugh, Bonnie, no! You… believed in us. We were a tragic display of compatibility."

Bonnie chuckles and Damon hops off the desk, walking up to hers. He continues, "But, you had enough hope for the both of us. I don't know why I yelled at you so much. It seemed to have worked."

Bonnie kicks Damon's shin, making him hop back. "Ow! What the hell do you have on?"

"Shut up, you crybaby vamp!"

Damon folds his arms, glaring at her. She could see his jaws tightening as he paces over to the window.

"Where the hell are they?" Damon says to himself, frustrated. "Oh, you know we'll probably need your blood, right?"

Bonnie roll her eyes. "Figures."

"How's that spell coming along by the way?"

Bonnie waited a moment before replying. "It's going terrible. I don't think I can do it."

"Bonnie, you got your magic back while I ran my tyranny of a mouth. You can definitely do this."

"It's too powerful, but if I can't do this? Then, what kind of witch does that make me?"

"Witch-in-training?" Damon says playfully. Bonnie narrows her eyes at him.

"Damon, I'm serious!"

"Me too. Look, you've said a million times over when we were trapped. Something about a witch is as good as the amount of people she's saved."

The corner of her mouth stretched a little. So, he does listen. She does remember saying that to him, and he dismissing her right after. Bonnie stares at the tan desk her hands are resting on and thinks that maybe he hadn't.

"You know what I say to that," Damon continues, "A witch is as amazing as their accomplishments. Their trials. Their perseverance. You have all of that, Bon-Bon."

Bonnie's eyes glimmer before his with passion. He'd said more to her than anything he's said in 1994. Anything outside of annoyance and aggravation, anyway. Her hands stretch out on the surface of the desk and she stands, licking her lips.

"Thank you, Damon."

"So, don't working on that spell, Bon. Everyone knows you can do it. You're amazing, I mean you saved me." He smiles.

"Shut up." Bonnie shakes her head and laughs.

Her head hangs down. Then, a shocking look shapes on her face. "Oh my god," Bonnie says.

"What?" Damon walks up to her in urgency.

"My grimoire… Damn it, how could I be so stupid to forget that?"

"The spell's in there, isn't it?" Bonnie's head nods quickly. "Well, let's go get it."

_Present_

Chills went down Elena's spine. Bonnie removes her hands from Elena's. The look on her face scared. It wasn't just surprise. She pulls away and sits forward in her chair. Bonnie could see anger mixed with betrayal on her face. She could see there was a wall with cracks Elena noticed that was Bonnie and Damon, and now Bonnie has broken that wall. She's shown Elena the truth. Although, the spell was what Bonnie was getting at, that Damon had hope that she could do it and she took that and ran with it… that he carried her… it wasn't what Elena focused on. Elena saw clearly how it was Bonnie's fault. Her upper lip angled up a bit and she turned to look at Bonnie.

"You guys shared something Damon and I would never have together," Elena's voice started to break, making tears fall from Bonnie's already watery eyes. "Death."

Bonnie explained it. She explained why it was her fault. Why the spell she started led to this, but all Elena heard was that Bonnie fell in love with Damon. And that it was easy.

"I'm going to go check up on him," Elena says. She stands and walks out of the waiting room.

Bonnie takes a deep breath and rubs her thighs, looking around the waiting room.

Bonnie walks into the girls' bathroom and faces the mirror. She is starting to hate mirrors. There was no way to hide who you truly are when it's standing there in front of you. She could hide the scars, the bruises, and the dried up tears. There were remedies for that.

She couldn't hide the fact that something unexplainable blossomed between her and Damon. She couldn't hide that Matt is hospitalized because of her irresponsibility of this spell. She couldn't hide that her enemy is her partner and that was her fault. She was being selfish.

She wanted to look away from herself, but she didn't. She faced it. She faced herself. The worst thing she can do is run away from herself. She won't. She'll face it, scared and afraid.

The bathroom door swings open. A girl walks in and Bonnie furrows her brow at her appearance. Her hair is messy and falling over her face. She walked slowly with no stride and into the stall directly behind Bonnie.

Bonnie closes her eyes and inhales. "Are you okay?" Bonnie says. The girl doesn't reply.

Bonnie shrugs, deciding to leave it alone. She looks back up at herself. A volatile look crosses her face and she stares at her face with vibes of volatility. Her hand rises in the air and the mirror cracks, until the stall opens and Bonnie puts her hand down.

The girl removes her hair from her face and Bonnie sees who she really is in the mirror. Her heart pounds and she turns around.

"How are you—?" Bonnie starts.

"You remember me?" The girl's voice was different, but everything else was the same. Bonnie killed her. She had thought she was dead and she thought it was over. She saw what she had did and now she's reliving.

Bonnie's eyes widened out as she swallows, the images of the crossbow going right between her eyes appear in her mind.

"You're supposed to be dead," Bonnie manages, feeling her body go into some sort of pause or shock.

"No, not really," The girl charges at Bonnie and her face changes. Her eyes sink into their sockets like a light in a black hole and her mouth stretches open. Bonnie steps out of the way and uses her magic to push her into the mirror. It breaks all over the girl's head and Bonnie runs out of the bathroom.

She runs into Kai's arms as she exits the bathroom.

Kai grabs onto her wrists and she tries to hard to break free from his grasp.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Kai yells. "It's me!"

Bonnie continues to fight out of his grip, shaking and throwing her arms around.

"HEY!" He screams. Bonnie stops and looks at him. Fury passed over her as she saw his face. She pushes him away and he flies into the wall behind him. He watches her storm away, curious as to what compelled to run out of the bathroom.


	16. Take Over Control

Fresh tire marks brandished the moist dirt on the side of the road. Damon wondered what could have sent the car off the road, knowing that it was only Lance who was driving the car. Who could have caused this?

The screech of tire marks alerted Damon a few minutes earlier. He picked up his pace and followed the sound. It was no question that it's connected to some sort of crash or accident. Damon had to come to terms with the fact that it was Lance's car. The one Stefan had been locked in inside of the trunk. A million miles out, no sign of anyone one else... It's only practical to ascertain Lance and Stefan to be in this accident. And the smell of fresh blood, satiating his senses, opened up hunger pains.

It was only him and an open road for what seemed like miles, though it only lasted a few minutes. Time is a trick. A device to psyche a man out, to favor someone else, or to disillusion or to confound, Damon thought. It was a trip.

As the warmth of the blood strolled through his nostrils and swam throughout his body, he knew he was close to Stefan. He just hoped he was okay.

The whole of it all had been an emotional whiplash for Stefan, and he took Damon along for the ride. Sarah, Lance, Matt, and all of those hunters knew just where to hit the Salvatore brothers. They always do. Elena was the first mistake, then Bonnie…

Dizziness clouded Damon's vision for a second. His hand clung to his forehead as he jerked forward, waiting for the cold throb to subside.

"Go away!" Damon screams. When the throb stops, he looks up in relief. He looks around the area, feeling a distant yet familiar heat emanate from his body. Someone was around. Was it Bonnie?

He thought of her and her witchy mind games, but the migraines she causes do not feel like this. Like an ice ball trapped behind the cages of his mind, battering the sides of pink flesh until it's a sickly purple. And why would she do it? Damon couldn't decide what to think and what just happened is too confusing to try to determine. The only reason he blamed her is because he can't seem to stop thinking about her.

He never can sometimes.

His mind wandered from conclusion to conclusion as the trunk, pushed back into some rippled effect, came into his view.

Stefan isn't inside. Looking to his left then right, he feels like he's lost.

The trunk's emptiness matched the void that began to fill Damon's eyes. He looks up from the trunk, stepping to his right to round the car. Blood traces from the side of the car and to the missing driver's door… the blood. His rubbed his fingers on the blood, splatted onto the car horizontally.

His fingers turn, just as his open mouth leans and takes in his fingers. Lance's blood was better than he thought. Moist and sweet. His eyes closed subconsciously from the tasty blood, calming his senses and grounding him for the moment.

He wanted more, but he'd feel so savage. Like a degenerate. Licking the blood off of an abandoned car like a vulture over road kill. He backs away.

Getting to Stefan is his priority, that's if he can find him. Damon head tilts up to purple, brisk sky dauntingly draping over him and the rest of the environment around him. Damon felt this wince in his body, not a physical one, but an emotional one that twinges inside of him. Like tweezers pricking around his bruised heart. He had this feeling that Stefan was nowhere around. It was almost instinct.

But Stefan just had to be around. And if he is, Damon can't leave him.

Turning, he steps over the tall grass that descended into a ditch. His sniffs the still air, ascending up and into the forest. More blood is nearby. His eye's thinned out as the smell grew stronger and sharper. It couldn't have been that far off, so maybe Stefan isn't either.

The tall trees up ahead looked like huge, scary shadows. He continues his walk forward, moving quickly to the location that his senses are leading him to.

It was easy for him to latch onto hope. He didn't use to have it as much, or look for it. It always felt like grabbing at air and if he couldn't touch it… then why believe it?

He is getting closer. He could feel the blood staining his teeth, he was so close. The hope for Stefan was growing inside of him, a ball of warmth filtering inside an empty space. He had hope now because he'd felt it before. He'd touched what he believed was the symbol of hope.

It would hard for others to see, because they wouldn't be able to understand. Though, spending four months with only one person can have that effect. Especially when their spirit, their actions and behavior, light a torch within that probably wasn't there before. And he felt her. He died with her and their hands joined in such simplicity that it had to be written word.

His eyes blink as he takes in the car door. Smeared blood on the handle and surface of the door.

He thought about the hope Bonnie represents for him and how simple it was for him to get wrapped up in it.

It meant nothing. Stefan's gone. She's gone… it seems like the things he cares most about are starting to evaporate. He could place blame and put a target on Matt Donavon, but that will not bring Bonnie back. It may even push her away. And as for Stefan, Damon knows he's out there. He's a vampire and he's brave.

It still sucks though, to have hope and then to have it crumble like run-down siding. Damon swallows, taking one last look at the car door, and turns around. He pats his pockets down for his phone. He must have lost it just as he's lost himself.

Damon walks out of the forest and he sits in the driver's seat of the car. The static of the radio buzzed and the sound of the smoke exiting the engine encompassed the surroundings. Damon looks out of the passenger window, a small, angled crack decorated the glass.

No sign or sight of anyone. He shifted in the seat, looking around the car out of curiosity. When he turns to check the backseat, the area in his back where he was staked aches. His hand goes there instinctively.

His expression eases as he sees a phone lying on the backseat. It was most likely Lance's. Damon reaches for it, grabs it, and sits forward. He wakes the phone, checking the call history. There were several calls, incoming and outgoing, of Matt.

Damon swipes to the number pad. He dials the only person he knew could get him out of this situation. Stefan's phone isn't on him, and if it was, he wouldn't be able to answer. Elena… well, their relationship hasn't been going like he thought it should. It's a lonely rock in the middle of turbulent waves, stuck in the eye of a hurricane, and not all rocks can be moved.

His thumb hovers over the pad, then dials.

"Bon?"

The room is all white. Standard for hospital rooms. A small, flat screen TV angled in the corner towards the bed, so Matt could enjoy some entertainment in his expended position. But he couldn't. His eyes were shut. He's on a breathing machine because he can't seem to do it on his own.

Elena sits in a wooden chair with burgundy cushioning, next to a wide window. She looks out at the parking lot. She can't look at his lifeless body.

She hears a knock and turns. Caroline raises her hand in the air and delivers a pleasant smile. Elena blinks, gesturing for her to come in.

"How is he?" Caroline asks. Elena's head is pointed as down as her eyes slowly look up to Caroline's, who is standing by Matt's feet. Caroline read it in Elena's eyes and her body wavers.

_It can't be Matt_, is probably the one thought traversing their minds like a runner on a track field, sprinting the longest race of their life.

It couldn't be. He was the one human, after all, that could avoid death. He had some kind of luck in him that naturally guarded him from death that, seemed to come for all of his friends.

Caroline blinks in Elena's gaze. "It can't be, Matt," Caroline's voice lilted on a sob, but she stops it as she walks and stands beside him. The pale of his eyelids reflects the plight of the hospital walls. So much pain and confusion… Caroline shakes her head. She murmurs "Matt…" and places her nails on his cheek, dragging them down to his jawline.

Elena inhales and lifts her chin up. "The doctor say he's in some coma, but…"

Caroline turns and faces Elena. "Did you try to…"

"Yes," Elena answers. "I've tried everything."

Caroline nods. "What happened to him?"

Elena's eyes move to the door. It was stuck in her mind, still, what Bonnie had told her. Quietly affirming itself inside her tiny little head. She dazed off a bit, reliving the anxiety that was born in her when the words left Bonnie's lips.

"Elena," Caroline says and Elena sits up. Her eyes dart around frantically before focusing on Caroline.

"It was an accident. It was Sarah."

Caroline's eyes narrowed. "Sarah Salvatore did this?"

"Yeah, Care. She did."

"And where's Bonnie?"

Elena could feel a pull away from reality again. From the sound of her best friend's name. Her and Damon. Who would've thought?

"I don't know," Elena's brow raises. She wondered the same thing. Her mind traveled a thousand miles an hour and she didn't know how to stop it. Bonnie is her best friend, yet every time she thinks of her she can't seem to process anything. The entire situation, from her side, was starting to get ridiculous. And terribly out of hand.

Their eyes are pasted on Matt, as he lingers on the line of life and death, and the air in the room starts to feel heavy.

Not as heavy as the air felt when Bonnie walks back into the waiting room. She folds her arms quickly and looks behind her, her mouth dropping. Ever since she saw the girl in bathroom, that she'd killed, she can't seem to stop hallucinating. As she looks around the small room, a pulsating paranoia bangs the walls of her mind. Her legs move quickly around the table in the center of the room. She sits in the chair paralleling the archway of the waiting room.

Her eyes were wide. The borders darkening to red minute by minute. She didn't move them for one second, and the more she looked on, the more afraid she became. Her lips shivered open and the breaths she drew quivered into the small space she grew afraid of. Fear penetrated the bland walls and coursed its way into her… just as the sound of footsteps, boots in the hall, became louder and louder as they got closer.

Bonnie unfolds her arms and latches onto the wooden arm rests, bracing herself for whoever, or whatever, is coming for her. Because she knows someone is coming for her. She did a lot of horrific things this past night and it would only make sense for someone to be looking for revenge. It's the way of life. Putting forth bad blood just brings more of it.

Bonnie's finger rises and drags against the wooden rest. Her anxiety rises and her heart pounds and her head drums at its highest capacity just as an older woman enters the room. She gives a warm smile to Bonnie before sitting and opening a magazine.

Bonnie's tight grip loosens and she, shakily, puts her hands in between her legs. Her head drops down, but she stares at the woman. If the woman were to glance once at Bonnie, she'd feel threatened by Bonnie's consuming and insanely driven eyes. The green glint harped on deranged, but she didn't remove her stare.

The woman turns the page of the magazine, minding her own. But suspicion never left Bonnie's expression and her eyes never stopped its cold stare. She was so fixed and haunted by her suspicions that she didn't even notice Stefan standing at the doorway, glaring at her.

"Bonnie, are you okay?" Stefan says. Bonnie stands quickly and scurries to the corner of the room, realizing too late that it's Stefan. "What's going on? Are you alright?"

Bonnie didn't say anything. She couldn't. She wanted to scream. Her hand reaches up and wipes under her nose, and she tries to calm herself a bit.

"Um," Bonnie starts, her voice still shaking as she itches her forehead, "I'm okay. I'm just not… it's nothing."

Stefan walks quickly around the table, and Bonnie's fear rises. She steps back into the side table, nearly knocking over the lamp that sat on it.

"Keep your distance," Bonnie demands, putting her hand up. She is willing to use her magic if he gets any closer. She could feel it inside of her. As she blinks, coming to an understanding of what she's doing, she gets scared of what is happening to her.

He looks like Stefan, acts like Stefan, and is dressed… like Stefan. But last she heard…

"I thought you and Damon were taken? By the hunters?" Bonnie questions. She kept her hand in the air, though it shook like the air was cold.

"I thought Damon was with you?" Stefan asked again, this time he took another step.

Bonnie's head shakes again. "No. Don't—"

"Don't what?" Stefan's expression began to lighten up— Bonnie could see a smile grow as he furrowed his brow and took another step.

"Don't play with me!" Bonnie says. "Or I'll break every bone in your body."

"Will you?" Just as Stefan said that, a boy Bonnie didn't recognize walked in. But she did recognize one thing. The glossy gray that held in Matt's eyes were in this boy's eyes.

Lance sits in one of the chairs across from the lady, a big smile on his face.

Stefan starts to get closer to Bonnie. "Back away!" Bonnie uses her magic to push Stefan away. He hurls into the air, slamming his back into the wall.

Bonnie turns to the archway and almost loses her breath. Sarah Salvatore nods at her, the same gray in her eyes, and Bonnie's entire world seemed so far away. She felt frozen in time. Stefan is picking himself up, laughing while his eyes change color, Lance is poised and menacing, and Sarah is locking eyes with the older woman, her hand in hers.

Something echoes its way into Bonnie's ears, "Hello Bonnie, remember me? Death?"

Bonnie sees the older woman make eye contact with her and she races for the exit. Bonnie hops over the table and stumbles her way out of the room. She slides across the floor, quickly trying to pick herself. When she gets to her feet, she sees two familiar faces from that nightmare. The two guys she killed in the abandoned building. The ones she left burn in the fire.

They walk towards her chanting, "Give us our life back, give us our life back!"

A hand wearing a glove grabs hers. "Come on, Bonnie!"

Kai pulls her away and they race down the hall.

Bonnie stops running in the middle of the hospital hall, staring up at the exit sign and letting go of Kai's hand. Kai stops and turns around, glaring at her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kai yells at her. He was right. What is she doing? She can't look at one person without thinking they are trying to kill her. She has to find a way to stop this spell. She has to kill this "Death" monster because it's never going to stop chasing her. She has to kill it.

"Kai, listen to me," Bonnie demands, stepping close to him.

"No, you listen to me. Sarah isn't Sarah! She's something you created on accident!" Kai tells her.

"If I don't kill her now, she won't stop looking for me. I knew the spell I was getting myself into when I started it… I marked Sarah as my vessel, but Matt killed her and I hadn't finished the spell yet. It fucked everything up. I have fix it."

"No, you'll get yourself killed! And me in the process!"

"Don't you think, I know that?"

Kai's lips were parted as he became speechless. For some reason, he was surprised she said that. He didn't care what happen next, only that he was alive and breathing.

"You're spazzing out. I won't let you do it."

Kai removes his gloves and grabs Bonnie's wrists. The magic starts to drain from Bonnie's body and into Kai's. His head tilts back and he chuckles a bit, letting the magic satisfy him. His eyes thin to a close and shuts his mouth, releasing Bonnie from his grip.

She brings her arm into her chest as she lies on the floor.

"You can't tell me, you didn't feel a thing?" Bonnie says, holding her wrist.

"Sure, I did. But it also felt good, so…"

Kai shrugs, then bends down to pick Bonnie up. She fights him in her weak state, bashing him in the arms and chest with her fists. He grabs her wrists again, sucking more magic out of her. He grunts, feeling a sting of pain in his body.

"I am not dying because of your stupidity," Kai says.

"We have to kill her," Bonnie tries to talk through the pain, "Or— Kai… behind you."

Sarah pulled Kai off of Bonnie and threw at the wall. "She's mine," Sarah roared. She picks Bonnie up with one hand, then grabs her face with the other. All of Sarah's minions surround her and Bonnie… The people she killed, hospital employees, Stefan, Lance, and even... Caroline. It made Bonnie wonder if Matt would be under Sarah's control too if he awakes.

"You brought me back!" the monster inside Sarah screams.

"I'm sorry!" Bonnie pleads. She tries break out of Sarah's grasp, but she was too strong.

"Don't be. Cause after you die, I'll die too!"

Bonnie's head jerks up and she could feel her magic leaving her body. It was painful and miserable and depressing. She couldn't believe it was happening again, and what if she can't get it back this time? She hated this and she hated whatever was in Sarah. This thing, whatever is inside of Sarah, was taking her magic.

Her vision is dissipating and the pain lessened as her eyes closed. She passes out in Sarah's arms just as Kai charges into Sarah and pushes her off of Bonnie. Bonnie falls into Kai's arms like a resting baby. He puts his other arm under her knees and picks her up, looking around at the people closing in on him. He carries Bonnie out of the exit doors and through another set of doors to a stairwell.

Kai puts Bonnie into Matt's truck and shuts the door. He gets in the driver's side and starts the truck. The engine rumbles and he speeds off.

Kai looks over at Bonnie. She's still passed out from her altercation with Sarah. He turns to face the road, seeing a sign that read: _Goodbye, From Whitmore_.

He hears a phone ring and looks at Bonnie's pants. It was hers. He reaches in her pocket, pulls it out, and answers it.

"Bon?" Damon says from the other end. Kai sighs.

"Nope," Kai replies.

"Kai? What the hell are you—"

"Damon. She's safe. For now."

"What do you mean, 'for now'? What did you do?"

"It's what she did… Look, I'll let her know you called, but stay away from Stefan, Caroline, and Matt. They can't be trusted, not until we find out how to stop them."

"Shit, Bon… tell me what she did. Tell me what she did!"

_Click._ And Kai hangs up her phone, tucking it back into her pocket.


	17. Drag Me Down

_One Week Later_

It was either a loud, incessant sound or nothing at all. Just the whispers that tempt her senses to shake. The whispers that travel from one wooden panel to another; cheaply painted panels forming the small, two bedded motel room.

One night, she'd heard a couple having sex. She got zero sleep that night and the moans and groans never left her mind.

And one night, she heard nothing at all. Even Kai was silent. She was sure he'd at least snored.

Bonnie sits on the edge of her bed, staring at the one in front of her. Her hands clasp, she frees them from each other and pinches the inside of her palm. The violet bedding with a flowery design brought her into vivid memory. The same flowery design, she remembers, was on her bedding as a child. White petals, leaves curving out from underneath. It almost made her smile.

It was the one thing keeping her grounded in this motel room. Miles and miles from her home, her university… Is she even a student anymore? This question roamed through her mind, and she thought of her professor… Max. She thought he meant well, although he didn't really encourage her to continue. She remembers telling him that she wanted to start over and move on. That she missed being normal and how a wonderful vacation it was that Damon and her shared.

Her head shakes and she brings her hand up in a claw. Her eyes narrow; she can't believe she said that. She relaxes her hand and runs in through her hair. The dryness of her hair unsettled her even more. She hadn't combed it in days. She hadn't done a lot in days.

The only thing she's done is think about how she's gotten in this position, and then get pissed at herself. She can't even recall the last time she got herself out of this bed. Why would she want to? She can't trust any of her friends. Anyone of them could be with Sarah. With whatever Sarah was, whatever Bonnie unleashed. It was still after her. She knows it.

The only person she can trust is someone she'd rather not be stuck with.

As a pound comes on the door Bonnie jumps off of the bed. She crouches down and hides behind the bed. Her breaths reached deeper and the shakes turned to quakes as she felt the world closing in on her. She jumps again. Two more beats on the door.

Her eyes close tight and a tear rolls down her cheek.

"Bonnie!" She hears her name from the other side of the door. Instantly, her fear rose. She drops to her stomach, staring at the collection of dust balls under the bed. It was like a community of their own, engaging under that uncomfortable mattress. "Bonnie, it's just Kai! Stop freaking out!"

Bonnie reaches onto the old mattress, the fetid smell sneaking out with the airy dust as she pushes off of it and picks herself up.

This scares her. The fact that a knock on a door caused her to go into a panicked state. Something that froze her thoughts and her body simultaneously. There was no awakening from it.

Bonnie walks to the rectangular window, pushing the golden curtains aside. The light blinded her and she covers her eyes immediately. To her right, just outside the window, is Kai's oval of a face expressing irritation with the corner of his eyes, wrinkling at her sight.

Bonnie moves towards the door. Her movements stiff. She's still not sure.

Kai pounds again and she turns the doorknob. He is standing there with his arms out, wondering why she is acting so strangely.

"You're being distant, not calling me back—" He says as he barges in. Bonnie stumbles into the wall behind her. She could feel its coldness, but it didn't bother her. She felt cold already.

"You never called me," Bonnie returns, watching him throw a couple grocery bags onto her bed. She hurries and shuts the door. Locking the top and bottom lock, then turning around with her hands still on the knob.

"Not sharing your intimate feelings with me." Bonnie doesn't say anything. Not to his remark or his face as he half-smiles at her. She looks him up and down. His shoelaces are untied as he kicks them off and into the brown dresser. It had a couple of scuff marks, but it is the one clean thing Bonnie noticed in the room. And in her position, she noticed a lot of things. "I bought some groceries," Kai says as he sits on the bed, going through the white bags.

Bonnie lets go of the doorknob. She'd held onto with a massive amount of strength, not even she knew she had. She walks towards him slowly, still unsure of what to say or how to react.

"I got some hot fries, pork rinds," Kai looks at her and raises his brow a few times. She still doesn't smile. The first time he was eating pork rinds, he was nothing but trouble. And as she inhales, the hate of being linked to him passes over her. She stops, a few feet from him, wiping her hand on the side of her thigh. Maybe she was holding onto that doorknob a little too tight.

Kai continues, "Cupcakes, ice water, everything you need to make chili cheese fries, and silly string." Kai crosses his legs as he pulls out the silly string and stares at it. His eyes expanded a bit, inviting Bonnie. She watches him closely as he kind of pulls away from the world around, similar to how it happens to Bonnie. And he says, "Yep, silly string."

After he says that in a quiet, hemmed voice, he flashes Bonnie with a playful smile, blinking before her.

"So you just going to stand there?" He asks her.

"Is this supposed to be your idea of dinner?" Bonnie replies. She was hungry, very. It felt like her stomach's lining was pulling apart, her stomach expanding then compressing into nothing but a pea. They'd driven for days before finding a place to hole up. And what better than a motel to do so.

"Well, maybe if you'd came like I asked you would have had a say in what was bought."

"How'd you get the money anyway?" Bonnie questions him in an accusatory tone. Her shoulders rise as she waits for an answer. "Well?"

"This paranoia shit has got your wires fixed," Kai replies. He was quick to show seriousness, which didn't surprise Bonnie. But it did surprise Kai. "Which is why I bought silly string."

"I'm not eating a thing until you tell me how you bought it."

"So, you'll just starve because your morals are being challenged?"

Bonnie's voice rose: "With what money, Kai?!" If there are other people in the rooms next to her, they have surely heard her.

Kai looks down at the bottle of silly string. His head shakes while he removes the cap and tosses it onto the floor. Bonnie's chin lifted a bit, and she stumbled back into the wall, when Kai pointed the bottle at her and sprayed string onto her face.

Her eyes gaze up at the ceiling. It looked like white cake frosting; little waves from wall to wall. She brought her gaze down to Kai, whose lips tightened to keep himself from laughing. A cackle slips between his thin lips and Bonnie charges at him.

An onslaught of rage and fire washes over her body and she can feel the frustration leave as she topples onto Kai and wails on him. Left then right with her punches and he guards his face with his forearms, shifting from side to side to avoid the hits. But Bonnie wasn't just going ballistic, she really wanted to hurt him. If her magic wasn't stolen from her, this would have been a different situation.

Kai made no pretense about being hurt. "Ah! Ow!" He said several times as the punches kept going. Her fists were in bicycle motion. Kai tries to stop her, peeking through her aggression and seeing water rush into her eyes. He watches as tears leave her eyelids, and before he could realize, a fist came slamming down onto his eye.

"Ow!" Kai belts. He uses his body to push Bonnie off of him and she falls onto the floor in between the beds. Kai hears a thud and sits up, watching her scurry off into the bathroom. The door shuts and she locks out. A loud bang coming from within.

Kai stares at the door, his lips parted. He sighs. He looks at the silly string, lying next to him on the bed. It flies into the wall above the dresser after he tosses it.

"Stupid," He says to himself. Then, his eyes downcast, glancing at the cupcakes and hot fries that lasted the barrage of Bonnie. He folds his arms and mumbles to himself: "I'm sorry."

In the bathroom, Bonnie wipes the last of the dried up tears from her face, tossing the toilet paper into the toilet.

She looks into the mirror, seeing blue silly string in her hair. She pulls it out of her hair and throws it into the white sink. After she turns the faucet on, she washes her face over and stares back at herself. Was this her normal now?

This entire time being back from 1994, all she's wanted was to live a normal life. Damon told her, the night they spent in his car, that normal is what a person believes it to be.

Bonnie blinks, turning her head away from her reflection. She walks to the door and unlocks it. A breath leaves her body and she pulls the door open. She stops opening it, peeking through the slit to look at Kai.

He turns on the small framed TV. Flicking channels for a while, Bonnie cocks her head as she watches him. She sees him hop off the bed and walk to the silly string. Her eyes roll to the back of her head. He sits back onto his bed, the TV's bright picture not too far from his eyes, and he sprays the TV with the string.

Bonnie looks away, opening the door further and stepping out. Kai looks, then throws the silly string behind him.

"You okay?" Kai's expression was serious, his voice suddenly on edge. Bonnie steps over to the groceries on the floor. She bends and picks up the ice water.

Kai watches her go into the bathroom, and after a few minutes, she walks back out with a white rag that had ice inside of it. She sits on her bed, holding the homemade icepack out to him.

"I hit you pretty hard," Bonnie says. A smirk grows on his face. He nods.

"You did. You gonna say sorry?" Kai asks. He knew he was pushing it.

"No, you shouldn't have sprayed me with silly string," Bonnie replies nonchalantly, shrugging with her response. He knows she's right, he just didn't anticipate the attack. His tongue swipes across her bottom lip and the sharp needling pain coming from his eye causes him to snatch the rag from Bonnie.

She turns and lies on her side, the phone on the nightstand taking up the front most of her view. She just wanted to pick it up, to tell her friends she was alright… well, at least Elena, if she cared to know. And Damon, who she knows is probably wondering where she is. As for Matt and Caroline, even Stefan, there's no telling what happened to them. The last she saw them they were being controlled by Sarah.

Bonnie turns away from the phone. Too tempting, and she wasn't ready to die. She doesn't know what she was ready to do, but lying here felt like the answer.

"Don't bother me," Bonnie says, "I'm going to sleep."

"Sleep? It's like three in the afternoon," Kai replies, holding the rag up to his eye. He winces, his mouth widening, as he puts more than enough pressure on his eye.

"I don't care," Bonnie says. Kai leaves her alone. He turns back to the TV, flicking channels mindlessly. Then, "Don't leave me alone for the rest of the day," Bonnie pushes out of her mouth. The window wrought painful memories of the one's she killed and how they, and more, are after her because of her pride. She didn't want to be left alone.

"Please." She whispers before closing her eyes. Kai doesn't say anything, he just stares at her. His eyes mold into pity, but, he knows she wouldn't want that. So, he gets comfortable.

He climbs back onto his bed, leaning on the headboard. Still, flicking channels like it's the only thing he knows to do.

_Three Weeks Later_

Bonnie figured, if there is anything Kai is good at, it's getting under skin. If they didn't have a terrible, violent history, she might've considered him a little brother. But there's always hate fueling between them. It starts as a slow build, but when it starts to tip over, everyone and anyone in the vicinity will know.

Bonnie used to want to kill him. That urge, actually, is still somewhere lodged in the cracks of her mind. Though, she'd always has, and she can't deny the truth in her head. Kai began her enemy, and in her eyes, will always be that way. She knows the relationship between her and Damon, how much of a shock it is they get along, but even they have their days. Kai and Bonnie? Bonnie felt she can't stand him and she never will, no matter what he did.

Kai used to see her as a means of getting home, a means of being free. He would do anything to make sure she fulfilled her role in his life, even if that meant blood spill. Now as he fixed up his bed, and watched the fire trickle down the cigarette attached between her fingers, he saw something else.

"I'm going out again, getting another pack," Kai says. The cigarette smoke always used to invade her space. Now it invades their space. Kai offered her a smoke a couple days back and to his surprise, she agreed. She took the cigarette between her fingers and he lit it for her. He couldn't hold in his laughter as she goes into a coughing fit, smoke forcing from her mouth as she buckles over. But, she doesn't give up. He kind of liked that about her. She took another drag and in an instant, she became a natural.

"Okay, but," Bonnie says, coughing a bit. She ashes the cigarette into a tray on the nightstand. She looked out the window earlier. It had to be some time in the evening. And the covers of her bedding were up to her waist. "I don't I'm going to smoke anymore."

Kai lifted his chin in disappointment, glaring at her like he knew she was lying. Her bottom lip trembles and she switches her gaze to the TV. The muted buzz traipsing the silence.

"You sure?" His eyes narrow.

"Just hurry back," Bonnie tells him. She waves him away and he passes in front of the TV, throwing a black hoodie on. He leaves and shuts the door, locking it behind him.

Bonnie takes another drag of the cigarette and slumps down into the bed. She puts the cigarette in the ashtray, letting the smoke arise in an eloquently S-formation.

If someone had asked her a few weeks ago if she smoked cigarettes, of course she'd say no. But now, she could understand why people might do it. It takes the stress away without even knowing it, and it's addicting. She remembers watching how calm it made Kai, how although his breath would smell awful and she'd order him into the bathroom, it still put to rest his fears. Whatever those were.

Her fears, though, still kept her in this motel. She was too scared to leave. Fresh air hadn't entered her nostrils since she walked out of Matt's truck and moved into this motel, which situated itself in the middle of nowhere. She had asked Kai not to tell her where they were, and he went along with it. She'd let him know when she wanted to know.

The one thing she did know was that it was a bit rundown, and scary. Before walking inside the motel their first night, she caught eyes with a dark-skinned girl; hair like a bird's nest and her blue eye shadow smeared into her pink tank. The girl had a look in her eyes; one that betrayed her appearance. A look of dread.

Bonnie pulls her legs up and out onto the cold floor. She stands, analyzing the room. It's been more than 21 days since she's been here. She walks to the dresser, opening the drawers. She didn't know what she was looking for, she just wanted something to change. The cigarettes did accentuate it a bit, more to herself, but she couldn't stand this bland, plain, basic living arrangement anymore.

She searches through the drawers and finds towels in the upper one. She tosses it onto the floor. She opens the second one. Empty. Nothing but brown mosaic wallpaper glued to the inside. She crouches down, opening the third. This one empty too, except for a notebook.

It was plain, just like the room itself. A bright blue with the brand name printed in black on the front. Bonnie runs her finger over it. It felt worn, kind of like how her grimoire feels. Flipping open the pages, there was nothing but blank pages. A smile crossed her face and she bounced up, running to her bed.

A light knock sounded on the door.

"Housekeeping!" A petite voice yells from the other side of the door. Bonnie clutches the notebook in her hands and her head whips to the door. Her legs starts to bounce and she could feel her breaths start to deepen.

Housekeeping was coming in one way or the other. They've been in once, done it before, so she knew she had to try to get herself calm. Her head shifts to the cigarette, still smoking, and she puts her fingers on her cheek. They drag up and down as she thinks about taking another drag.

She didn't want to hide in the closet. It was shameful the first time and only heightened her fear. She hated it, but she wished Kai were here.

The keys jangled outside the door. "Housekeeping coming in!"

Bonnie reaches for the cigarette in a quick impulse, but her palm knocks the ashtray and cigarette over the back of the nightstand. She reaches for it fast, following it down the narrow crack between the wall and nightstand, and the side of her head slams against the headboard. Her fingers outstretch and she takes a breath, wiggling them to try and feel for the cigarette.

The lady walks into the room and greets Bonnie. Bonnie freezes. She doesn't turn to look. To be met with the gray liquid eyes that have seemed to haunt her for days. For 21 days.

"Are you okay?" The lady asks. Bonnie can feel her presence getting closer and the heat in her body rises.

"Don't come any closer!" Bonnie yells. The lady jumps back and runs to the bathroom. She tells Bonnie she'll just grab some dirty towels and come back another time. This soothes Bonnie. She breathes again, feeling a little better.

She hears the door shut and Bonnie pushes off the headboard with her left hand and turns, hopping off the bed. She sprints to the door and locks it. The side of her face is pressed into the door as she tries to calm her breaths.

She walks back to her bed, falling onto it head first. Lifting her head, she picks up her phone off the nightstand. She sees a lot of missed calls from Elena, Damon, and from Caroline, which scared her. Bonnie sits her phone on the bed and stares into the small space taking up her room.

This isn't what she believes to be normal. This is way out of the span of normal, and she didn't want to live through it anymore.

Bonnie hears a knock again, but this time followed by a pound. Her body relaxes from its instinctive tense state when she hears three small knocks, then three big knocks and a smack.

Kai made up a secret knock, so she'll know when it's him. Bonnie thought it was ridiculous, but it's actually worked quite a lot. She hops off of the bed and opens the door.

"That was fast," Bonnie says to him. She stopped questioning how he got food and supplies about a week ago, and she felt wrong eating it. She knew it couldn't have been from being a good citizen.

"I am fast," Brusque, Kai moves in with a brown paper bag. "Got us some chili cheese fries. And since you ruined the first ones, I get the most of it!"

Bonnie closes the door, making sure it's locked. She folds her arms while walking over to her bed.

Her and Kai would pull out the nightstand until it's the middle of the walkway between the beds, remove the lamp, phone, and other things, and put their food here.

Bonnie picks up the cigarette that had fallen back there and flushed it down the toilet. It felt kind of good to her, then she went out and sat across from Kai on her bed, the nightstand in front of her. It was a big platter of chili cheese fries.

Kai scoots up close to the nightstand on his bed, his legs falling down either side of it while he sat on his bed. Bonnie's legs were crossed under her as she reached for a couple of fries drenched in cheese.

Kai smiles at her, taking some fries into his mouth. She didn't smile back, just looked away.

"Do you think I'm going crazy?" Bonnie asks. Kai's chewing slows as he pondered the question. He swallows, taking her gaze in. He thought she was so beautiful, gorgeous, even at his first sight of seeing her and Damon. He was jealous of him, if he was to be honest.

"Why would you ask me that?" Kai replies.

"It just feels like I am. I yelled at the housekeeper lady because I was scared she was with Sarah…" Bonnie tells him. He could see the shame on her face and he wanted to help. Eating another fry, he sighs.

"Well, did she barge in?" Bonnie nods. "She deserves to get yelled at then!"

Surprising to Kai, Bonnie smiles. It wasn't very big, but he made her smile. He's been trying too hard to do so, and now, in a natural capacity it just happens. He chuckles to himself, staring at the chili cheese fries.

"What are you laughing at?" Bonnie reverts to her serious manner of dealing with Kai, which makes him laugh even louder. His head hangs back as he laughs. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Kai says. He looks back at her, meeting her glaring eyes. A chill went up Bonnie's spine then, because for a moment, she felt like Kai was becoming more than something she'd grown to hate. Maybe he's something she can try to tolerate.

_Four Weeks Later_

"Get out!" Bonnie, covered in silly string, throws a glass plate at Kai and he ducks just in time. The plate smashes into the door behind him.

"You do know if we damage something, we have to pay for it?" Kai says.

"I don't know how you get your money so, I really don't care!" Bonnie threatens to throw another but Kai holds up his hands, walking towards her.

"Wait, wait! Stop throwing shit at me!" Kai pleads.

"No. I thought I could trust you."

"I thought you hated me!"

Bonnie grunts, picking up another plate of food off of the nightstand. They were having lunch, something that Kai's been wanting to do for awhile. Bonnie would only eat with him at dinner, but she agreed this time. And she regretted it extremely.

Kai jumps off the side and onto Bonnie's bed, dodging the plate she threw.

"You've been talking to Damon behind my back…" Kai shakes his head, trying to make up some excuse. A breath leaves his lips, not knowing what to say. Bonnie turns around and stomps into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

"It wasn't just Damon, Elena too!" Kai says. That didn't make it any better.

"Ugh!" Bonnie screams and bangs on the door. She walks over to the toilet and sits, smothering her face in her hands.

Is Kai trying to get her killed? That's the only thing she could think after what he'd told her.

She runs her fingers into her hair at an angle, moving a blue silly string in front of her face. She pulls it from hair and dangles it in front of her. It twists in her finger as her thumb and index finger rub together.

"Hey," Kai knocks on the bathroom door three times, he lets his knuckles rest on the door on the third. "You weren't supposed to know," He looks up at the ceiling.

"Obviously," Bonnie replies brusquely as she rolls her eyes. At the same moment her fear heightened, so did her hope. Maybe Kai dropped some hints of their whereabouts? Being here was like hell. Damon had always talked about his hell to her and how he imagined to be what they experienced. Bonnie's hell was the short time after he left. Being alone with nothing but the whistle of the wind to talk to, or the grains of dust in the evening air to divulge her ugliest truth.

There was no real fire. Just a day-to-day, ravaging loneliness that tore her to pieces. The only fire was her passion to get out.

"Well, you can come out whenever you're ready to talk." Kai waits by the door, his knuckles sliding down it. After a minute, he steps away from the door to stand before the mess that they'd just created. Food was stained on the beds and into the carpet. Broken plates scatter before the door and the far side of Kai's bed. His bed got the brunt of the outburst. The bedding and sheets would have to be washed immediately if he wanted to sleep on them tonight.

_Six Weeks Later_

She hadn't said a word. She smoked cigarette after cigarette. Not even looking Kai in the eyes when he would hand her a pack of smokes. He'd buy her food and they'd eat separately. Kai would peer at her every now and then, but her face had this placid look, this placid effect. It made Kai feel a bit content, although it wasn't how he truly felt.

One night, after a store run, Kai returns to find Bonnie sound asleep. He suddenly gets nervous and drops his head, his eyes shifting up to see her again. She slept like a little doe; curled up and cozy under a fog of stars. Her hands under the side of her cheek. The cover up to her elbow. Kai swallows and quickly walks to the bathroom. He stops, his hand hovering over the knob. He looks back, watching her again, and his eyes jump to the cigarette pack on the nightstand.

What came over him, he couldn't even tell himself, but before he realized the pack is in his hands. He grips the pack, walking away from Bonnie, her side rising as she sleeps.

Quickly, he walks to the door and tosses the cigarettes outside. He looks over the railing, locking eyes with the same girl Bonnie had. A blue scarf to match her blue eye shadow. Kai's eyes narrowed in the dark and his phone began to ring.

He was anticipating this phone call from Damon Salvatore.

"Damon…" Kai answers.

"Is she talking to you?" Damon asks. This was how their phone calls were. Strictly business, as Kai observed once, making Damon want to punch him in the face. It bothered Kai that, though he's a pretty despicable person, he's trying. And no one cares for one miniscule beat to think that he just wants someone to talk to. Well, he could care less if Damon realized it or not. Kai turns, phone to his ear, and stares through motel number 13. He wanted it to be Bonnie.

"No, she hasn't even looked at me. I can't tell if she's afraid or if she wants to thwack at me again." Kai bites the inside of his jaw, his hand bouncing against his leg. "She just smokes and smokes and…"

"I told you, I would have taken the cigarettes from her," Damon says. "I still don't believe she's doing that."

"Maybe if you'd been there at the hospital, then you'd understand just how traumatic it's all been." His voice spit like fire, causing Damon to react just as nasty.

"You pitiful little freeloader, don't even try to say that I wouldn't have been there! You and Matt stopped that from happening when you left me there to burn!"

Kai pulls the phone away from his ear, storming back into his motel room and slamming the door. Bonnie's eyes opened in a shock just as Kai turns back to the door, locking it and putting the phone back up to his ear.

"Did you want anything?" Kai asks. "Because you called me!"

"I was just checking up on her… something you clearly can't do for me."

Kai put his free hand onto the door, stepping back with one of his legs.

"Why do you keep calling anyway? She doesn't want to talk to you! Did you think that maybe she's scared that you're one of them? No, of course not, because you're Damon fucking Salvatore and she always comes back for you! Well, not this time!"

Kai hangs up the phone and opens the door again, he walks out into the night air. Just as the door slams with a bang a crow flies into the motel room and perches itself on the nightstand. Bonnie sits up in her bed and stares at it. It caws and Bonnie jumps, then it flies and perches on the TV. Bonnie finds herself in a conundrum: watch the TV or watch the crow.

It wasn't long before the crow gave Bonnie the boost she needed, even if that boost may have put her in some danger. Her life was falling to pieces, breaking into tiny shards that would fall through the cracks of the hell-worn ground she walked on. Cigarettes were becoming her main source of savior, and she was distancing herself from the one person she needed to trust.

Kai had noticed the same thing, too. He'd returned that night, not saying a word. And Bonnie didn't want to tell him about the crow that she'd shooed into the bathroom. He just snuggled right up into bed, pulling the covers over his head, and all she watched was the rise and fall of his body. She didn't even notice the cigarettes were gone. Transfixed, she supposed, on the fact that a crow was in the motel room. Another living, breathing organism that would change the dynamic of the room.

It was the start of Bonnie's transformation.

Early the next morning, Bonnie is standing in front of the bathroom door. Her ear is pressed onto the door and she could hear the bird. She'd seen it already, in its dark marvelous glory. Like a shadow under moonlight, flitting from one part of the room to another. It astonished her.

She heard its wings now, flapping dramatically. It's caws shocking her ears through the door. And as much fascination this brought her, how it propped her up and on her feet, she knew that she'd have to get rid of it. She knew it would drive Kai crazy.

He gave Bonnie the flimsiest of smiles when she told him of it, like he was on a drug trip or something, because he certainly didn't want to believe it. A crow, in their bathroom? He folds his arms, flippantly, his expression molding into sympathetic territory.

"Look, the past few days, have been insane," Kai starts to talk lowly, his chin down and eyes emanating sincerity, which caused Bonnie to go into full suspicion mode. She was keen on it before the ball had dropped, before he actually made it public news.

The two of them had talked about it before, briefly, a couple weeks back. Kai didn't want to confirm or deny her float down the rivulet of crazy, but her mental stability seemed to be waning in his eyes. It was hard for him to watch because he liked her, and he wanted to do something about it.

Damon was the start. Kai swallowed his pride every time to think that Damon knew Bonnie, and not just like a pencil knows the paper, but the way the pencil knows an artist _strokes_. They were more intimate and in sync than any two people he's ever known, kind of like how he and Jo were before the whole merge ceremony drove him to. But, he could see that he wasn't enough. He had to call Damon.

Damon and Kai only clashed, as do when most dominant types are naturally against one another. So, other methods were put in place as Kai's calculative mind turned on.

"What are you talking about?" Bonnie asked, she sensed what it was about already. "Is this about my behavior lately?"

"I've been doing some googling, and I think I know what you're suffering from."

Bonnie's mouth drops, a deluded look in her eye. "Are you trying to self-diagnose with google?" Her eyes seemed to haunt Kai in this moment, because there was something different. Something that told him his amateur research may be true, then he heard a thud on the inside of the bathroom door. Their heads swiveled to it.

"I told you, Kai!" Bonnie says, pointing at the door and grinning at him. Bemused, Kai steps away from the door. The look on Kai's face gives Bonnie the satisfaction she needs. She half-smiles, reaching for the doorknob.

"Don't!" Kai screams, his hand reaching for Bonnie's arm. "We need a plan. A way to catch it."

"No, we don't!" There was a glimmer in Bonnie's eyes. Once again haunting the very ground that Kai stood on, because something was off. He'd seen just how her eyes changed. How much fire they held whenever she glared at him, or just even glanced, and how much torture those richly green eyes could contain. And now, he's noticing something different.

Bonnie continues, smiling as if a spotlight is shining on her, "I know, to you, crow's represent something dire. Like an omen. But the minute this came into our motel room… I knew that something was changing." She nodded.

Kai exhales, itching the side of his neck. "I don't know. It seems like you're hallucinating. You know, cuckoo. Seeing something that really isn't there."

"I used to be a witch," Bonnie's eyes drop to the side. Getting her magic stripped from her, once again, was no different than the others. Same pain, same frustration, same tragedy.

Her eyes shift back up to him. "Actually, I am a witch... without power. I've found it before, I can do it again. And that crow… I know that crow is the answer."

They would never agree. The silence swelled up the motel room as the two were on different sides of this fiasco. Kai still thinks she's going crazy, and why wouldn't he? What happened to her at the hospital was horrible. Basically, everyone she trusts turned against her and everyone person she's wronged came back for her. Like corporeal ghosts whispering for her. Wanting her. Getting away, Kai figured, as far as possible was the only real way to help Bonnie. And now he's thinking, maybe it hasn't… maybe nothing will.

But Bonnie sees the crow as the quiet before the storm. She can feel it; something is coming. A typhoon of benevolent waves are moving her way, and although she's still scared, still afraid that Sarah, or whatever she is, is looking for her. This crow gives her hope that there is a way out.

She whisks around, facing the door and placing her hand on the doorknob.

"I know what I'm feeling, Kai. My instinct is impeccable," Bonnie says to him. She turns her head and angles it down, Kai in her peripheral. "Don't doubt it. Not now. Not when I'm feeling a little better."

Kai nods, his hand on his chin. He didn't respond for a moment, thinking of what to say next. She was right. He shouldn't shut her out. Even if he'd done some novice research on paranoia and hallucinations, he knows how much of an effect hope can have on mental state. And if she believed this was the way out, he wouldn't be the one to take it away from her.

Bonnie turns the knob, until another thought comes up. "You never told me why…" She says, turning around to face him. She left her hands on the doorknob, staring up at him.

"Why, what?" Kai asks. He sits on his bed, figuring this conversation would go longer than he wanted.

"Why you contacted Damon in the first place."

He didn't know how to deal with her. "I needed help."

"Help with what? With me?" Bonnie swallows.

Kai purses his lips. "Do we really have to do this?"

Bonnie bounces against the door. "Yes. I just need to know a few things…"

Kai waited, for Bonnie to continue, but she said nothing. Then, he looks at her, urging for her to continue with whatever she wanted.

"First, what is it that you do to get food, money… all that bullshit?"

Kai clasps his hands together. He nervously grinds his together, his mouth open, and shoots a look at her. "You don't want to know."

Bonnie glares at him. Maybe she didn't. She still thinks Kai is a degenerate, feeding off of other people. He's right to think she doesn't want to know.

"You're right. I don't."

"Then, leave it alone."

The air in the room suddenly became hot as the tension rises a bit. Bonnie pushes off the door, folding her arms. She bit her lips thinking about how much she wanted to know, but from the signaling fact that he feels she doesn't want to know, the most plausible option is to let it go. If she finds out he's done another irreprehensible deed, it'll probably set her off. Especially if it's in immoral territory.

It's still a conflict for her though. Eating his chili cheese fries and smoking his cigarettes… just living in the motel room. How is he paying for all of this? The fact that she is standing by, knowing the money isn't coming from a good place, says more about her than it does about him.

But, she has to get by somehow. _They_ do. As their linkage still hasn't been severed.

So, she lets it go. For now. Soon, though, she will have to come face to face with what horrors Kai spawned to wish them survival.

Letting it go, she ponders the other question at hand. Damon.

"What did he say? About everyone?" Bonnie asks. Kai takes a deep breath.

"Well, Matt's still in a coma…" Kai tells her, bluntly. Bonnie puts her hand over her mouth, shaking her head. Matt… a guy who only wanted to look out for her… still in a deep sleep from what she created.

"And Stefan? Caroline? The three people I killed?"

"Stefan and Caroline are trapped. They found more information on how they—"

Bonnie gasps, staring at the ground, puzzled. She interjects "So, they're after me?"

Kai just nods. Bonnie replies with the same. This was the truth that she didn't want to know, that maybe she couldn't handle. But the crow was still here, bright in Bonnie's mind like a light. And she wasn't going to let anything keep her away from that bird.

"Okay, I'm done," Bonnie says, although she wanted to know more. More about Damon. And Kai wanted to tell her more, too.

She turns back around and faces the door, opening it. The crow flies out. It flaps its wings, circling the room a few times before perching itself on the dresser. Both Bonnie and Kai look at in amazement.

"So, what do we do now?" Kai asks.

"Nothing," Bonnie says, walking over to her bed and watching the bird closely. It didn't move one inch. It stood there, stoic and gorgeous, jerking its small neck and observing the room.

Bonnie sits, moving her bangs out of her face and watching the bird. She knows it's here for a reason.

The next day, Bonnie opened her eyes to an empty bed next to her. She didn't wonder long where Kai had gone, one of the main reasons being the headache she felt as soon as she sat up.

Getting out of bed, she goes to the bathroom and wets a white washcloth with warm water. As she presses it on her forehead, looking up, she sees the crow in the mirror. It was perched on the shower rod.

It startled her at first, but then she smiles. If only she had her grimoire, maybe she could figure out its reason for being here. The truth is, she didn't have it. All she had was herself. Kai wasn't interested in helping her work this bird out. Bonnie turns around, curiously eyeing the crow. She was kind of embarrassed by the way she was acting. Shy, bashful... but she knew it wasn't just a regular, everyday crow. This is leading her to something.

"Are you somebody?" Bonnie asks the crow. She didn't actually think the crow would say something back, but the assumption of being given a sign definitely floated through her mind. There wasn't a sign given though, as Bonnie searched around the bathroom for any movement, sound, or twitch. The crow was poised in its position like royalty, frozen like a statue. Which didn't parallel Bonnie's anxious movements.

She just wanted to know what the crow's purpose was. Bonnie had to sit down on the toilet seat to calm herself down and collect her thoughts. She takes a deep breath and looks up at the crow again, one eyebrow raising.

"Did... someone send you?" Her voice lilted on a high pitch. After waiting for a response, there was nothing. Bonnie's shoulders slumped and she stared at the tiled floor. "Or..." Her voice rising above a whisper as she thinks of an important question, "Did Damon send you?"

Bonnie jumps as if shocked by an electric current. The bird swoops down from the shower rod, scaring Bonnie, and flying around the small bathroom. Bonnie ducks, laughing and watching the crow, mesmerized. She continues to chuckle, her hands covering her lips, as she not only feels a weightless tickle resound throughout her body because of the bird's reaction. But this feeling arises because she was right that it was about Damon.

Her chuckles stop as she realizes just this. Gradually, a quaint smile begins to give way to her cheek bones. Her eyes search the bathroom, glimmering in their excite, and the corners of her mouth curl up in an unique way- something visually gratifying that even the crow could recognize as canny. Her shoulders shook more because of the laughter leaving her mouth again. Joy, she figured, was the feeling. Her eyes grew with water; a close look revealing the reflecting sparkle of green in the salty puddle before a tear fell from it.

"Damon," She said to herself. She hops up from the toilet seat and claps, looking gleefully at the crow, who is now perched on the bathroom sink. "See! I knew there was a reason... Damon. He sent you... I know he did..."

The bird cawed, loudly, at Bonnie. And to her surprise, she cawed back. She laughs at herself thinking to how she could be so silly. Then she thinks, when is the last time she was being this silly?


End file.
